Extrude from lines or Offset line from center; Architectural drafting

Piecey

I'm trying to sketch a house for visualization purposes and wasn't able to find an easy way to lay out a floor plan to create walls for a structure. I can't remember which CAD programs had these features but being able to either 1) extrude a certain height wall from sketched lines vs completed faces or 2) offset a sketch from center for easier floor plans.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/51c2ee4e36b67b50de2b58de/w/dafaeb0f7bad3cd27d6dea2f/e/70fa7ca421c86e5ad7cf05d6

I'm a former SW user and just jumping back into solid modeling after a long time and am ecstatic to have such a robust solid modeling in browser form to play with!

Alternatively, how are others sketching buildings? Perhaps there's a better workflow especially when creating all the components that go into a building.

steve_shubin

@Piecey

extrude a certain height wall from sketched lines …

There are a few different Extrude FeatureScripts that you can install that have Thin-feature

how are others sketching buildings? Perhaps there's a better workflow especially when creating all the components that go into a building.

For components — 

Various manufacturers either have 3D models or 2D DXF’s or DWG’s.

You can go online and download models such as in the SAT format, or download 2D DXF’s or DWG‘s and make a model from the 2D plan.

steve_shubin

@Piecey

Also — the extrude featurescript above allows you to place the wall on either side of the line, and it also lets you center the wall on the line.

Piecey

That looks pretty handy! Is it a paid feature?
I can't seem to find that in the featurescripts I've come across so far.

MichaelPascoe

Extrude is free in Onshape. Onshape is free if you are using it for hobby purposes. If you are using it for business purposes, you will need to purchase a pro subscription. Here is the best place to learn how to use all of these neat Onshape features: Onshape Learning Center

What @steve_shubin said is good, the extrude feature will work great for extruding some simple walls. It's located at the top left of your screen when inside a part studio or at the top right there is a search bar you can use.

If you would like more detailed walls or have several rooms with different wall profiles, I recommend using the custom feature Pattern & sweep for walls and panels. To add this to your tool bar, click the link and follow the instructions.

Here is my workflow for rooms, trim, and panels, you can follow the Pattern & sweep link to see see this workflow in Onshape:

• Create your variables that you can use later
• Sketch the floor plan
• Sketch the wall profile
• "Pattern and sweep" the walls with my custom feature

steve_shubin

Piecey said:

I can't seem to find that in the featurescripts I've come across so far.

You will find it in the document below

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d86ccadb2e501bb1c1e01257/w/80fd84b75cff0425444a7528/e/fb173919842303349e952269

And here is how to install a custom feature 

https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/customfeature.htm

steve_shubin

@Piecey

Here’s a GIF showing how to add the two features above

MichaelPascoe

@steve_shubin
Ah, the extrude you were showing was a custom feature. That does look pretty useful.

steve_shubin

@MichaelPascoe

Not anywhere as fancy as your feature. But for somebody that’s just getting up to speed with Onshape, it might be a little faster to get going with

NICE GIF Michael !!!

david_lang457

@steve_shubin
that thin-feature makes it very convienient to create any sort of boxes from a top plan. Are you aware of anything that can take the result and turn it into panels?

In an ideal world, you could make the panels overlap so that you could then use the box joint featurescript to make tab connections between the walls and then the auto-arrange featurescript could lay them out for easy lasercutting

That would make it very easy to create a building in onshape, and then turn it into a model