Auto-Associativity to other parts in "Create Part Studio in context"

roy_roffler

I made a simple model to check how I can design parts with references to other parts.

Here's the model:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f24e7f2da10833f176ae90e9/w/8585bc2e63a9d6b5b3416ede/e/507424e7d818cb88f57231cd

So far, I found out how to draw such a part:

1. In the "Top_ASY", I click on "Create Part Studio in context"
2. A new header opens, in which I can see all the parts in the "Top_ASY"
3. Based on the parts shown and their features, I create a new part. (In my example I used a simple "Loft" feature, drawing something like a hose between two parts, using two circular faces)

So far so good.
However, if I move the referenced parts (here the assembly "OS_TETRIS_ASM2_ASM") around in the "Top_ASY", this "hose" is not regenerating.

If I right click on the hose in the "Top_ASY", and select "Edit in Context > Context1", the part moved in "Top_ASY" hasn't moved, the hose stays as it is.
If I right click on the hose in the "Top_ASY", and select "Update Context > Context1", the hose finally updates.

Now my question is: If I have a big assembly with various such parts with dependencies from other parts, do I manually need to right-click on every single one of them and click "Update Context > Context1" (or whatever that context is called in other cases)?

At work, we regularly have assemblies with dozens of parts with dependencies, sometimes even dependant parts from dependant parts. In that case, I would need to manually right click every single one of them, and, if dependencies are multi-level, meaning dependant parts from dependant parts, I would even need to consider the correct order or sequence of doing that?
That seems super risky to me. If there's no "update all" button, how should I be sure everything is up to date?

Footnote: I saw the following discussion that was addressing just that, but I didn't see a solution there...
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/13086/update-all-contexts

eric_pesty

In context editing in Onshape is setup so that it won't update unexpectedly on you, hence the manual update. This allows creating multiple contexts (including multiple contexts in the same assembly) in a single part studio and allows creating "circular" references.

If you have several parts designed in the same part studio with a context, updating the context will update all of these parts. But otherwise, yes, every context need to be updated manually...

However there are some other ways to do "top down" design in Onshape that might be better depending on what you are trying to do. The main one being using master sketches/geometry and using "derive" to insert that into part studios.

You could create some layout sketches/ref. geometry in a context of your top level assembly and derive that into your individual part studios. Updating this one context would update your ref geometry and propagate to all the part studios (assuming they are in the same document...).

I would recommend this "top down design" learning pathway if you haven't checked it out yet as it goes over "Onshape specific" workflows. https://learn.onshape.com/learn/learning-path/top-down-design

eric_pesty

In context editing in Onshape is setup so that it won't update unexpectedly on you, hence the manual update. This allows creating multiple contexts (including multiple contexts in the same assembly) in a single part studio and allows creating "circular" references.

If you have several parts designed in the same part studio with a context, updating the context will update all of these parts. But otherwise, yes, every context need to be updated manually...

However there are some other ways to do "top down" design in Onshape that might be better depending on what you are trying to do. The main one being using master sketches/geometry and using "derive" to insert that into part studios.

You could create some layout sketches/ref. geometry in a context of your top level assembly and derive that into your individual part studios. Updating this one context would update your ref geometry and propagate to all the part studios (assuming they are in the same document...).

I would recommend this "top down design" learning pathway if you haven't checked it out yet as it goes over "Onshape specific" workflows. https://learn.onshape.com/learn/learning-path/top-down-design