Offsetting a face or contiguous edges

tom_auger

In https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/93/offsets-in-onshape it states that one can offset an entire face in one go.

In the first screenshot you can see that this compound shape is recognized as being a "face" when you select it, but offset won't recognize it:



In the screenshot below, you can see that when I try to select the upper edge, it is in fact not split (strangely to me), and so I cannot offset the shape that I'm looking to offset (the face highlighted in the first screenshot).



I can work around this by using the split tool, splitting at the intersections and then manually selecting each edge, but that seems tedious. 

What's the most efficient workflow here?

NeilCooke

URL? It can’t offset where 3 edges meet at one vertex. 

lana

You can use face offset inside second sketch, if that would work for you:

tom_auger

Rats, it gets worse. I've split my segments on their points and attempted to offset, but I'm getting a confusing error about only offsetting a "single chain at once". I'm pretty sure the issue has to do with splitting - I find that sometimes OnShape is a bit confused about which segment you want to split, when segments overlap (sort of a "stacking order" kind of issue I've seen in 2D vector drawing software).

tom_auger

Attempt #2, again using split of the upper and lower horizontal lines. With the click-and-drag mode of Offset, not picking up that right-hand edge as being connected to the rest of the shape. Is there something special (a constraint?) that needs to be explicitly defined to connect that vertical segment with the rest of the shape?

NeilCooke

URL? It can’t offset where 3 edges meet at one vertex. 

lana

You can use face offset inside second sketch, if that would work for you: