Is there a way to automate "copy specific part and select a tranform type for the user"?

christian_svendsen

In the Part Studio I am repeatedly moving my cursor to the same part (a washer) in the list, right clicking it, moving my cursor to the Copy option, clicking it, moving my cursor to the transform window, clicking the transform type drop-down menu, moving down to "Transform by mate connectors" and clicking again, then to select the first connector I am clicking the same hole of the washer as I've done several times, before I finally make a unique action where I choose a new location for the new copy.

If a script could just "Copy [Part 16], Select [Transform by mate connectors]", it would be awesome.

It would be nice if it could also select the first connector, too, but it would still be great without it.

Does this kind of copy script already exist, or can one be written? Would it be a lot of work to set up?

S1mon

Are you trying to create an assembly with a bunch of washers? It sounds like what you really want is to be in an assembly and use replicate.

https://www.onshape.com/en/resource-center/tech-tips/tech-tip-using-the-replicate-command-in-onshape-assemblies

christian_svendsen

In the assembly I want to bring in the part with the washers as a composite part.

So I'm fastening them permanently. It might be a bad practice but it's the solution I'm currently looking to optimize.

When it comes to things like these I don't easily change trajectory without losing interest, needing to step up and do things properly throws me off from doing anything at all. Besides, this kind of fastening can probably be useful for bits that aren't washers in other projects.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/09ca26e340e078cde1f6a833/w/f820843fbcd6a1bdc402bbdf/e/578479e4daa6ea234729722e?renderMode=0&uiState=644eb29fbf9ecb6db2c3d78a

They're in the joints. I've done a bit more on it since posting, learned a lot of different Onshape tools today.

I don't actually think this is a useful object, at least not with this kind of weight and dimensions. But it has already done a lot for me as a practice project.

S1mon

It would make a lot more sense to do a lot of this work as subassemblies. Any time you're doing a bunch of transforms like that in a row is a red flag. As I said commenting on another new users' questions, while this approach will "work", it's really using Onshape in a way which is not very efficient.

See here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/91279/#Comment_91279

glen_dewsbury

WOWZER
That's  lot of dedicated time and effort.
Ditto, S1mon's comments.
Trying to make changes/updates later will continue to be a tremendous amount of work.
That time would be better spent in the free learning center understanding assembly/subassembly functionality and understanding basic  concepts.
https://learn.onshape.com/learn/course/introduction-to-assembly-design/assembly-interface/introduction-to-assemblies?page=1
https://learn.onshape.com/learn/course/introduction-to-parametric-feature-based-cad/what-is-cad/what-is-cad?page=1

eric_pesty

Would also not recommend that approach for this and echo the idea of using a sub-assembly instead... However in the rare case where there is a good reason to do something like this in a part studio, the "transform pattern" feature can do it easily...
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/25a0a6dfaa76e64574a5e0db/v/8217d6d96ccc324b8dd86160/e/4c62c06c4e0e4db3703a2d4c?jumpToIndex=1735

christian_svendsen

Oh, I've completely overlooked sub-assemblies as an option, so I've apparently just treated composite parts as a bodge for them.

Guess I could've learned about those from the learning center, but I've started enough of those structured learning activities to realize that I simply will not continue practice after I start trying to stick to them. When I made use of a few resources, but only ever paid attention until I got what I was looking for.

Your answers have done a lot to compensate for my poor methods.

Thank you all