How to insert Part Studio as one part into Assembly?

david_varga315

I spend some time to check related questions and improvement requests regarding the topic but found no clear explanation or solution. For my problem this IR was the closest but I see no disposition or explanation how it was implemented: 
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/12016/multi-body-in-part-studio

My use case: make house floor plan with simplified but configurable (size/open/closed/patterned...) furniture modules

• Want to make a part studio about a product which has many configurations controlled by drop down list options
• The part studio contains multiple parts but the number of the parts and sizes are changing by configurations
  
• Want to insert the part studio into assembly with the default configuration and then change, adjust the configurations using for iteration location/size iteration

Issues:

• Up to the point to set up the configurations within the part studio it goes well, but when I try to insert it into an assembly it is becoming too complicated to play with configurations part-by-part.
• If I create an assembly dedicated for my "standalone part studio" (I want to use it already as an assembly/multibody group) I have to create again all the configurations at assembly level and define another 2nd layer for the config parameters which makes no sense
• Using the derived part option the configuration change is lets say available, but you loose the assembly part placement and constraining flexibilities - don't want to make overcomplicated part studios
• Updating the part studio e.g. I make/don't delete a part in the part studio the change also not appears in the assembly for sure
• Configurations defined in part studio by default applies for all the parts within, but sometimes has no meaning on the standalone part or even causing error in assembly; part disappears in a specific (part studio) config

I can still play with features which are merging somehow all parts together in the end of the part studio, but I also miss a feature like group or merge part studio parts into one independently how many parts you have within the assembly, similarly to "Merge with all" option in features. Is there any alternative or upcoming solution for this?

eric_pesty

I'm not sure I fully understand all the subtleties of what you are trying to do but there to some extent when you are working with assemblies that use configured parts, you do end up having to "re-create" a lot of the configuration inputs at the assembly level...
One thing that might help with bringing stuff into an assembly from a part studio is to create a composite part, this way you are only bringing one thing containing multiple parts, however it is treated as a part so you can't make it move...
An additional trick is to setup your composite to include all parts that may be generated into the composite feature (for example set you configuration to the maximum number of parts and select all. It will still work even is some are missing.

I don't know if anyone has created this yet but I would think it wouldn't be too hard to create a featurescript that creates a composite of all the solids in a part studio automatically...

eric_pesty

I'm not sure I fully understand all the subtleties of what you are trying to do but there to some extent when you are working with assemblies that use configured parts, you do end up having to "re-create" a lot of the configuration inputs at the assembly level...
One thing that might help with bringing stuff into an assembly from a part studio is to create a composite part, this way you are only bringing one thing containing multiple parts, however it is treated as a part so you can't make it move...
An additional trick is to setup your composite to include all parts that may be generated into the composite feature (for example set you configuration to the maximum number of parts and select all. It will still work even is some are missing.

I don't know if anyone has created this yet but I would think it wouldn't be too hard to create a featurescript that creates a composite of all the solids in a part studio automatically...

chadstoltzfus

@eric_pesty

It's nothing too crazy. Here's a very very basic example. I could imagine this "Composite Part Plus" feature getting more complex, perhaps different types of solid/surface filters, or maybe there's properties or names you would want to populate all parts contained in a composite part that you could set at this level. 

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/c3b07627ae171d4d02b5a7ca/w/2be6ca2d0b5007585e21b21a/e/715bbfc942f4269317e45d29 

david_varga315

Thank you for the answers!
It was the composite part, what I was missing. Its a bit on me, I thought "composite part" is how you call the part studio which contains derived part(s), but I see now, its a feature. 
The script is also working fine, it is even better for me most of the cases, thank you!