ComponentInstanceRef

A lightweight placeholder for a ComponentInstance that hasn’t been fully loaded yet.

When you place component instances inside a SketchupOperation, the API returns ComponentInstanceRef objects immediately, before SketchUp has finished creating the instance. You can pass these refs to other operation methods that accept component instances, but if you need the full ComponentInstance object, you can request it with entityForRef().

Think of a ref as a “claim ticket” — it guarantees a component instance will exist after the operation commits, but it doesn’t carry the instance’s properties (name, transformation, etc.) yet. A ref is only valid inside the performOperation callback that created it — do not return it or use it after the operation commits.

Example

let model = await SketchUpApi.getActiveModel();
let { Transformation } = SketchUpApi;

await model.performOperation(async op => {
  const defRef = op.createDefinition('Chair');
  // Add a seat to the definition
  op.createFace(defRef, [
    [0, 0, 18], [18, 0, 18],
    [18, 18, 18], [0, 18, 18],
  ]);
  // Place two chairs side by side
  op.createInstance(
    model, defRef, Transformation.translation([0, 0, 0])
  );
  op.createInstance(
    model, defRef, Transformation.translation([24, 0, 0])
  );
}, 'Place two chairs');

See

Properties

sketchupId

readonly sketchupId: SketchupId

type

readonly type: ComponentInstance = EntityType.ComponentInstance

Accessors

typeName

Get Signature

get typeName(): string

Returns a named variant of the type field.

Since

SDK 2.35.0

Returns

string

Methods

toString()

toString(): string

Returns

string