Drawings/create API

shawn_crocker

I have been adding some functionality to an app that allows a user to initiate the creation of a new drawing of a selected item from within the app.  Seems to be working really good.  Only thing is I cannot seem to get the new drawing to get created using a selected template.  See image.



I have templates and I have supplied the appropriate details to the highlight keys in the image.  But still, the drawing is created with a default onshape template.  When I use the "templateName" key, the query reruns a 400.  When I omit that key it works.  I'm thinking I am not understanding exactly what should go into the key.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I know drawings endpoint are supposedly not fully stable and it is not completely suggested to use them but I am hoping someone out there figured out how to make the template part work.  It would be so perfect to be able to stop manually changing the template every time.

shawn_crocker

Just figured it out.  I tried using "templateWorkspaceId".  Now the drawing gets created with the right template.  It is strange the versionId doesn't work.  Based on how the system works as a whole, I am surprise we are even able to reference the workspace like this.

Bob_Miner

@shawn_crocker - Could you please try passing just the templateElementId, templateWorkspaceId (or templateVersionId) and the templateElementId.  I don't think you need the templateName.  Thanks.

shawn_crocker

@Bob_Miner
I have been doing that.  I am currently using it without the "templateName" key.  Everything runs as expected except the newly created drawing is set with a default template.  This is the issue.  That the template I am choosing does not seem to be getting read by the server or something.

shawn_crocker

I'm just discovering drawing BOM's are very huge.  One letter takes up the whole drawing sheet.  Looking at the drawing properties after loading in my standard template, text size and everything seems to be correct but still the text of the BOM is gigantic.

shawn_crocker

Just noticed, I have to use the "unit" key and supply the desired unit system.  I was thinking this was going to be attached to the template I was manually switching to.  Seems the bom scale is being driven by a unit that is not coupled to the unit set in the drawing properties.

shawn_crocker

Just figured it out.  I tried using "templateWorkspaceId".  Now the drawing gets created with the right template.  It is strange the versionId doesn't work.  Based on how the system works as a whole, I am surprise we are even able to reference the workspace like this.

Christopher_Ace_Caoile

Still on the topic of creating drawings using this endpoint… How do I add just a single view? I'm trying to create a drawing for a flat sheet metal, so I need to show just the top view, but it's giving me 4 standard views when I use it.

shawn_crocker

I haven't tried but, possibly only having a single top view in your template that you use for the call will work?

susan_pedicini

Try the steps here for creating a custom view template: https://onshape-public.github.io/docs/api-adv/drawings/#create-a-drawing-in-a-custom-graphics-area

marcus_schaefer

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/106438#Comment_106438

Did you end up figuring this out? I want to do the same thing (except with 2 views).

Christopher_Ace_Caoile

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/109250#Comment_109250

Things got busy so I stopped working on it,.. A quick fix would be to just place the 4 views- get their view Ids using another endpoint- and then delete the unwanted views… I tested it in glassworks and it seems to be working as intended but I'm almost certain that this will not work in a real script because it will be very slow

shawn_crocker

@Christopher_Ace_Caoile That's a good idea. It would be cool though, if an Onshape developer could step in here to be clear on how it can be done efficiently or if it can be done. It would seem it should be able to be done, simply because it is being done within the Onshape UI. Sadly much of the API calls being done within the Onshape UI seem to be made server side, so picking through your console to see what is actually happening is not much help with respect to drawings I have found.