Sheet metal and Derived feature.

robert_stiles

Hello -tricky one here...

If I had a sheet metal part defined in a parts studio. I brought that in to another parts studio using derive, at a given configuration which is differnt to defaults,  along with other instances of that parts studio with differnt configurations, and other parts studios also with sheet metal definitions, can I collect all the variations of the sheet metal out put? unfolded? 

Please don't suggest assemblies. Until onshape enables feature script within assemblies, there is no way we can bring all the parts studios into an assembly. 
(at least, if it did work in assemblies, I would have to create an assembly just for the sheet metal output, and have a replica parts studio to do all the other things our feature scripts need to do)

Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks

eric_pesty

Hum...

You can do multiple derive ins of different configurations of the same source (you can pick the configuration in the derive in feature), but when you derive in a sheet metal part you just get the solid so you won't get flats right away...
You'd have to "convert" them again to sheet metal (just need to use a "thicken" with correct thickness and bend radii, etc...), which you might be able to automate with featurescript...

You might also be able to use the "unfold" feature to create "flattened" configurations of the parts before you derive them in.
I'm assuming you want to nest these afterwards using featurescript?

robert_stiles

yep, thanks, the best approach seems to be to bring them in as their various configurations, re run the sheet metal in the multi-part studio as you suggest, recreating each of the sheet parts I need to export - bit annoying but its not a killer.

The unfold feature you have pointed me to in your reply is just to pinpoint the unfold code so I can adapt it in one of our custom features right? Its not actually supposed to do anything as a feature tool as it is there? because it doesn't do anything!!! Thanks though, this is a very useful start point. 

The nesting... currently we use an external nesting once we have the dxfs out. Our dxfs have multiple layers, for multiple tool operations, and we need to control grain direction and priority, etc. One day we might have a process that runs in onshape, but its a little way down the list. If you are interested, after some long investigations, we settled on nestfab for now. Its very good - https://www.nestfab.com

Another question please. Why when I run the finish sheet metal part feature, I can only select one part? It seems to close out the sheet metal operations on the all the sheet metal parts in the parts studio, not just for the single part I choose to select in this feature? I get that purpose of the feature is to close out those specific sheet metal operations, just as the create sheet metal part  starts them. (We have a similar thing, we call book ends on some of our features), but... what's the point in being able to select one part? is it doing anything else to that part I've not realised? either it should be able to select multiple parts, or it should not need a part at all, and just be a close out book end. Otherwise its a bit confusing. 

Thanks

eric_pesty

Can't comment on the behavior of the "finish sheet metal part", I suggest you open a ticket with Onshape about that...

The "unfold" has worked for me before so I'm not sure what's going on...
I guess my other question would be why you need the flats to all be in the same part studio as it seem like a cumbersome step to take (but I don't know what you are trying to achieve...).
If you are running featurescript, could you not just run it on multiple parts rather than require bringing them in? If that doesn't work I would look at bringing the parts together in the featurescrip rather than manually deriving them into a single part studio... 

lana

`Finish sheet metal` feature deactivates one sheet metal model - all parts associated with one `Start sheet metal` feature.

for deriving multiple configurations of the same part (or multiple parts) you can use Ilya's Super Derive feature