Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
Both the legacy plugin and the current OpenStudio plugin use SketchUp groups to contain surfaces from the IDF or OSM file. A component is more like a definition with one or multiple instances. I can see why you would want to use that, in particular for fenestration and shading for fenestration, but it isn't currently supported.
If you worked in the newer OpenStudio vs. the legacy OpenStudio you could create a user script or measure that would replace windows or shading surfaces globally. We already do this for a simple overhang by projection factor, but you could make it more complex, or could even have a resource OSM file with a specific geometry pre-defined to be brought in, in place of existing shading surfaces.
