Using part drawings from other assemblies

Randy_Johnson

I am 3 weeks into using OnShape at a new job, so bear with me...

We have 9 lighting fixtures that use common parts and sub-assemblies with the the same part numbers.
The manager wants a dimensioned drawing in each assembly for each part and sub-assembly of all 9 final assemblies within that fixtures OnShape file.

So, my  job is to create each part drawing and sub assembly drawing within each assembly.
To avoid duplication and time spent making a separate drawing of the same part number, how do you go about this?

Is there a way to import the same part drawing /sub assembly drawing from one assembly to the other?

Thanks

john_mcclary

There are a few things you could do.

I think you are using assembly and document interchangeably, I'm a little confused about how you want it structured.

Otherwise you have the ablility to re-use and link parts across documents/assemblies/drawings/partstudios..

If you have a clearer picture of what you are trying to do, I can point you in a good direction 

tim_hess427

@Randy_Johnson - Welcome to the forum! It sounds like your boss wants to have each of the 9 fixtures in their own Onshape Document. Then, in the same document, they want a copy of every drawing for every part and sub-assembly. Is that correct?

If that's the case - Onshape isn't really set up for that type of document organization. You can certainly have the same part used in many different assemblies, but there isn't a way to link a drawing to multiple documents. You can create copies of a drawing, but they wouldn't be linked together and a change made to one copy wouldn't show up in another copy. 

Do you know why your boss wants things this way? If you're able to share a little bit more about the "why?", the good people here can offer some more specific advice or some good alternative approaches may pop up. 

p.s. - I don't know if you have control over where the individual parts and sub-assemblies go, but the recommended approach I've seen (and use) is to keep only one part or assembly (with it's own drawing) per document, if possible. There are certainly instances where it makes sense to design multiple parts in the same part studio, such as when the geometry between two parts is highly inter-dependent. But, in general, keeping documents simple gives you more flexibility for version control.

I hope this helps a little bit!

Randy_Johnson

The way I figured out how to do this is to make a copy of the common part dimensioned drawing and to move that copy to the next fixture's OnShape file.
This company is learning the OnShape program so we are in a learning curve.
I'm sure there is a more streamlined way to do this, but for now this works.
From what I can see, each fixture file has it's own Parts Studio including common parts and revised and new parts and the sub and final assemblies.
The parts are not all in one common Parts Studio...

tim_hess427

@Randy_Johnson - If I understand correctly, the issue you may run into is that a change made to one copy of a drawing will not carry over to another copy. So, as soon as you have to make changes to a drawing you'll have different versions of the drawing in different places and no good way to tell which one is "correct", which could create big issues if you're trying to use these drawings for production. 

The problem isn't that this method isn't streamlined, the problem is that you loose all control over your drawings by making copies like that. 

Randy_Johnson

So what do you suggest?
The parts where all designed in separate parts studios, i.e., fixture #2 has it's own parts studio but uses imported parts also from fixture #1, also.

john_mcclary

You may want to use assemblies rather than duplicating parts in part studios.

Then you can have each of your part and drawings together in separate documents. Only draw the unique parts in the fixture's document.

Then you can right click and open linked document on any part in your assembly. That will take you right to the other document that has only the common part and drawing.

Any unique part drawing can live in your fixture's document.