Creating A New Part In An Assembly???

manny_foto

I was a full-time user of Pro-Engineer in the late 90's and early 2000's and have started using Onshape casually over the last year or so.  In Pro-E, I would be able to create new parts in an assembly that would be referenced and positioned to existing parts.  I have not found a way to do this in Onshape.  My current work sequence is as follows: Create the first part in a Parts Studio, then create each new part in the same Parts Studio, essentially creating an "assembly" of all the parts.  I then create an Assembly of that Parts Studio, and bring in each of the previously created parts, and mate and locate them as I did in the Parts Studio.  This seems counterproductive as I have to locate & reference the parts AGAIN!.  Am I missing something?  At the end of the day, I'd like to be able to create a drawing of the full assembly with general dimensioning, as well as create drawings of each parts separately.  

mlaflecheCAD

Here is an intro on how to do this @manny_fotohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQEODfj178I. And some more context (pun intended) https://www.solidsmack.com/cad/onshape-context-assembly-design-unlike-anything-youve-ever-seen/.  Essentially you can model parts in-context in a way that you have much more control over because of the way Onshape handles version control.

eric_pesty

If all your parts are fixed relative to each other, you can just insert them in your assembly (note if you select the part studio when inserting it will insert all the parts at once) and use a "group" relation to keep them in place relative to each other so you don't actually have to mate them if you have drawn them in the right location in your part studio.

mlaflecheCAD

Here is an intro on how to do this @manny_fotohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQEODfj178I. And some more context (pun intended) https://www.solidsmack.com/cad/onshape-context-assembly-design-unlike-anything-youve-ever-seen/.  Essentially you can model parts in-context in a way that you have much more control over because of the way Onshape handles version control.

eric_pesty

If all your parts are fixed relative to each other, you can just insert them in your assembly (note if you select the part studio when inserting it will insert all the parts at once) and use a "group" relation to keep them in place relative to each other so you don't actually have to mate them if you have drawn them in the right location in your part studio.

manny_foto

Thanks for the quick responses.  I got it now!  Sometimes tough teaching an old dog new tricks.