Possible to get property from a part that is not the sheet reference ?

Jon_H

Hi, here's the situation we have a COTS item that gets modified internally, we have to make a drawing of the modification and treat it as a custom part, while still having the COTS item model in out "standard" folder/library.

In the custom part drawing, we only dimension the modifications and we add a note that gives the part number of the COTS item. I would like the part number of the COTS item to reference the item's properties and not just be written manually, so that if something changes in the COTS item's properties it gets updated in the drawing.

Currently we can't find a way to do this. In SW/Inventor you can add another view (say a small iso view) of the COTS item and in the note you can pick from that view's properties, while Onshape only allows to pick from the main part and the drawing's properties.

Any thoughts on that process ? Doest it make sense ? Any way to make it work like that or to have a workarround ? Thanks a bunch

MichaelPascoe

If I understand it correctly, you want to be able to store info in the parts properties then view that info in the drawing?

• You can set the properties automatically with a custom feature like SetProperties.
• The part properties can be extracted and noted in the drawing with the call out drawing tool.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e3e30d828a8506fdd688a9dc/v/1da3ff90d14087e2198e15c2/e/f3039fee29ba309092507d33?renderMode=0&uiState=641316a54031392333d743ca

MichaelPascoe

Hm, my gif upload is not posting... There should be one here.  

Jon_H

Thanks for the answer @MichaelPascoe, this is not exactly it I think but that's on me the explanation isn't very clear.

Another way to ask this without context is : In an Onshape drawing, I need to reference a property of a part that isn't present or visible in the drawing.


Here's a simple case to hopefully give a clearer explanation of my issue (sorry I can't share the document itself, hopefully this is enough)


- This pulley is bought from the supplier (art. 17027200, name Timing Belt Pulley HTD 3M, this is our COTS item) without the tapped M4s and Ø22 bore.
- We then modify it in-house to add those features.
- For that we need two unique "parts" managed in Onshape, one which is the COTS item and the other one is the finished pulley (the cots item is considered "raw material")
- The drawing of the modified pulley gives the details of the original one with a text note, I would like the "name" and "article ID" (part number, whatever) in that note to be filled based on the relevant properties of the COTS item (original pulley). In SW this is done by adding a view of the part in the drawing, but I'm not able to access its properties like that


This allows us to send just the drawing of the modified pulley to our purchasing dept. and they take care of ordering both the original pulley and the operations for its modification. Otherwise we have to manually manage both operations separately ourselves.

Jon_H

One last thing : the way we model the "modified" version is by creating a new part studio using the "derived" feature to get the original geometry and modify it.

Would your featurescript be able to pull the "Part Number" and "Name" from the part being derived and push these two properties as i.e. "original Part Number" and "original Name" in the new part ?

MichaelPascoe

Ah, you want to keep the data from the original part for purchasing. But you want the drawing to indicate the machined part. If you wanted to, you could have a custom feature to take the part properties of the old part, then insert it into the description of the new part. However I think there may be a better approach that could save you some time.

You could keep the part in the original studio. Then, create a list configuration with two options: Stock, Machined. When you create your drawing, have the machined part however you want it, but place the stock configuration off to the side in a smaller view with a note that pulls any info you need from it. This way, you aren't creating multiple tabs or documents with derive chains. 

Are you familiar with configurations?