Importing multiple individual step files into a single parts studio

rene_mercer

Hi All,

I know this question has been asked before but last time was a couple of years ago so here's hoping for an update....

I am trying to create a parts library of the vex iq robotics parts for my robotics team.  I would like to have a single document with several part studios for each category, for ease of finding when inserting into an assembly.  Ie parts studio for structural beams with several individual parts in the same studio. I know this can be done, because i use a fantastic one for the VEX V5 system - see link.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5782e53fe4b0b7679dbf9f2c/w/b62de756a6f06dfc82b8fcef/e/39b83a3ecc27aa007ba7b3a2

So my question is there a way to upload all the individual parts into a single parts studio, and if not - does anyone know how it was done in the attached document?  - or indeed if someone else has done so and is willing to share, that would be fantastic.

Thanks for any help

shawn_crocker

@rene_mercer
I see what you mean about the young learners. As for the step files, are you saying each step file contains one part? If so, I believe it will have to be a one by one sort of thing. The below gif is the best way I can think of

shawn_crocker

I don't have permission to access your linked document.  Without seeing the document, I would really suggest doing it another way. I would make sure each part was in its own document. I would group the documents in folders. Then each user can navigate to the folders and create labels for the parts that would make it quick for them to find what they what, organized how they want. Keeping the parts in individual documents makes versioning things much more comfortable. I used to group things like different types of fasteners all in one document and found it tiring that basically all my documents had out of date fasteners all the time.  It always seems like standard parts won't really need to be changed ever but everything always does no matter what.  If you are really bent on Forcing everyone to adhere to you own sense of order, you could import all your step files, and then derive all the resulting parts into a single part studio. You could also drop what you want into an assembly, and then export the assembly so that you can import it back into a single part studio.

rene_mercer

Thanks Shawn for the reply - ill try the last suggestion you made and see if i can get it to work.
Sorry for not posting the public link https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5782e53fe4b0b7679dbf9f2c/w/b62de756a6f06dfc82b8fcef/e/39b83a3ecc27aa007ba7b3a2
Hopefully this is the right one.

The students i am looking to use this with are aged about 10, smart kids but yet to really have a fully developed sense of order yet.... Me modeling for them how to organise parts into catagories  is part of the learning process. And while i agree that parts do change all the time, these are commercially sold kits so the parts generally have a 5 year span before becoming outdated.  

As a teaching tool for young kids, i still think i need all the parts contained in a single document with each category an individual part studio.  So other then doing this one file at a time.......is there not a way to do it for several parts at once?  I have downloaded folders already organised into categories with all the step files - its just when i import/upload them it stores each part as an individual part studio. I figured there must be a quicker way to upload all those parts into a single part studio at once?

shawn_crocker

@rene_mercer
I see what you mean about the young learners. As for the step files, are you saying each step file contains one part? If so, I believe it will have to be a one by one sort of thing. The below gif is the best way I can think of

rene_mercer

Thanks Shawn - and yes each individual step file contains a single part. They are already organised in folders in the categories i would like to import them into - each folder of individual parts into a single part studio. There are about a hundred or so files.....*sigh*. I was hoping for a quick way to do it rather than one by one as you outlined above - but it seems less likely its possible. I managed to get in contact with someone who created a similar one (different parts) for their robotics team - and they followed the process you demonstrated above. Thinking out loud I wonder if it could be done with a feature script (which i dont know how to write),  my brain would rather spend 5 hours trying to find a quick way to accomplish something  then just slogging through it in 4. 
Thanks for the help, i appreciate the response.
   

Alex_Kempen

@rene_mercer
If the build system you're referring to happens to be VEX, you can find my VEXU team's Onshape library of VEX V5 components here:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2aba28475248f28b019e8672/w/04e64926555ce731d80a7b0b/e/76fadc4c75674007aa6eb865

It's obviously not 100% complete, but it does have a lot of the base components useful for building VEX robots. Having spent a significant amount of time both curating and using our library, I can confidently say I strongly prefer the single document method. I could see it getting out of hand if the document contained several hundred unique non-configurable parts, and I do agree that having to version the entire library can be a bit annoying, but I also can't imagine the pain of having to sort through lists of individual documents to find the one component I need. But to each their own.

rene_mercer

Hi Alex, thanks for the link - this is exactly how i was thinking of setting one up....just for VexIQ parts instead. 

Since vex have downloadable folders of all their parts grouped into fairly sensible categories i was hoping for an easy way to import all the parts at once into a single part studio,  but the consensus seems to be a hard no - its time and part by part. 

Cheers.

Alex_Kempen

Okay, sure. If I recall correctly we imported most of ours from an Autodesk library put together by the community, which had the benefit of working correctly with colors. My brother was the one who grouped the parts together inside the individual libraries. That being said, I think it's actually better to avoid having multiple parts together inside a single part studio since you want the parts you have at the origin in case you ever need to derive them and make modifications. That's probably more of a VEXU workflow though, and it can depend quite a bit on the number of parts you have in your library and other factors like that.