Making a drawing template to reuse in sketch

said_yeter

Hey all, I m new to onshape. Sorry in advance if it is a silly question. 

My only CAD experience is TinkerCad (if you consider it as a CAD software). I m looking for similar functionality to grouping in TinkerCad. It groups all the tiny parts into one single part. Then I can multiply it.

I searched 'template' and 'grouping' in onshape docs and forum. But apparently there are other concepts with these names. 

I m drawing for 3d print.

You can see my documents. Here is one:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/efc975d2d413aad3445f3c8b/w/0e65068d85a6871dc02ef7d5/e/0c3112ae0d2a1196e0cd7b49?renderMode=0&uiState=6622604cb3050d7791285b41

I m trying to draw a new part for my new keyboard. The document is base sketch of left side of my keyboard. As you can see there are 24 holes for 24 keyboard switches. I created 2 variables. One for distance between switches, one for switch side length. If I change a variable, changes on all the boxes(switch holes) is being reflected. Good feature. 

But I need more. I want to create a box in somewhere with some holes inside it. Then I want to use it like a template. Then I want to put it multiple times somewhere I want to. 

Here is an analogy for my need:

Imagine you are designing a book cover in onshape in sketch mode without extruding. And let's say that book cover contains a bunch of texts and star-drawings. And you want to draw the star once and put to some specific places around text. When you change star template, it will reflect to all starts on sketch.

I hope that make sense. 

Thanks for reading it.

robert_scott_jr_

Hello. Welcome to Onhape. What number of templates are you expecting? - Scotty

Ste_Wilson

You could use the equal constraint in the sketch?

said_yeter

robert_scott_jr_ said:

Hello. Welcome to Onhape. What number of templates are you expecting? - Scotty

Hi Scott. Thanks for reading and answering.
One for the switch is going to solve my problems. But if the usage is convenient, I would like to use more.
In here, if you take a look at this; I have a box. Inside it, there are 3 circles, 1 half circle and 2 lines. All are black.
    

But when I copy them, there are some blue lines. I need to put number of constraints. Doing this for other 20+ boxes are hard and open to mistake. And let's say, I did once, and printed, and wanted to change one thing, I will need to do this change for every boxes. Creating this box and put the things that I need as a component, and using this one as a component in my skecth, is going to level up my experince    



Thanks for reading it.

robert_scott_jr_

Would it work for you if you created a sketch pattern of the sketch entities you will later shape and then select only certain of those entities to shape as in Part Studio 2 below? - Scotty

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e02c339da17a82eb16add09e/w/3b68e6d62c74006043ef7c11/e/e355c41c42ff91a2123c3543  

David_YL_Nguyen

Hey @said_yeter,

Check out the super derive custom feature, might do what you want to achieve. It works with sketches too.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfef86ed4f9635531599a973/w/def12fa727cba59c54c7c45d/e/1ca336dd47d98dd00918c589

Any questions, let me know. Cheers

said_yeter

Hey all, I could not apply your suggestions. Looks like I have some skill issues. 
Thanks for your time and effort @David_YL_Nguyen @robert_scott_jr_