Creating materials while we work

martin_kopplow

I am just in the process of assigning materials to parts I imported from clients and vendors. They appear to come without material definition most of the time. So I research the material, then update the parts.

The help says:

The values specified are used to calculate Mass properties. Note that the material Name and value are not stored for future use with other parts, but you can enter the same information for other parts if you wish.

Yepp, I want to calculate their mass and maybe run a simulation on them later. But as the help file already states: I have to input all the custom values for all the parts manually time and again (or create a new material library). Is it only me, or is that a generally pretty tedious method to handle this? I feel there should be at least a "Copy Material" option for when I need the german material name, so I could just copy an existing material and assign the correct name, and there should be an "Add to custom library" button so I can create a new material as I work and then re-use these material for other parts. The material library that comes with OS is just not as comprehensive and not as multilingual as to ignore this requirement.

martin_kopplow

Let me add the following: Updating a material library while at work is not currently possible, because updated libraries only come available after closing and re-opening a project. For now, I keep a copy of my material library on my PC, open as a spreadsheet, and edit that when I run into a new material, and whenever I have a few new entries, I save s a.csv and update the OS custom library with that. But that can't be it, right?

william_lacey140

That's what I've been doing. I just update the library that I exported from OS and when I add a new material I upload it again.

martin_kopplow

Have you found a method for immediately using the new material without closing and re-loading your current Onshape document?

Here's what I think is needed:

I've opened a ticket for this, please comment and vote up: 

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/24829/add-an-option-to-create-new-custom-materials-on-the-fly/

billy2

I have/maintain my own material library.

-I maintain a spread sheet that was generated by OS, the headers can not be changed, it's strictly bound, don't change them.
-I add new materials to the sheet
-then I update the material library with a csv from spread sheet
-oh yeah don't forget to version the material library

Oddly it's not that bad but wish it was easier like what you're showing, I voted it up.

When adding numbers, use 34e6 for mega & 34e9 for giga stuff, don't use zeros, it's too hard to maintain the zeros.

If you're working with printed materials, wood, water, granite and a lot of other things in the real world, then you should have your own material library.

martin_kopplow

Hi @billy2, thanks for the hint with the mega/giga stuff, I wasn't aware it would be recognized. :0) The zeroes already drove me nuts. Yes, there appears no way around maintaining your own library, with approved values and material descriptions actually happening in the trade you're in.

One more thing: A document can apparently hold more than one material library. Are there any pros and cons for making multiple documents or put multiple libraries into one document?

Also, when working in multiple languages (say three or so), what would be best practise: Maintaining a library with one language each, or put the three identical (but localized) matrerials all into one library, next to each other, to facilitate easy updating ad versioning?

Ideally, I'd like too have ONE material library with a few extra columns to take the material names in different languages, and then just switch between them. That would eliminate doubles.

romeograham

We use a small custom library for our proprietary materials, or specific resin / metal grades etc, if they aren't in the Onshape library. For anything standard we use the Onshape library materials.

If you publish more than one material library in your Enterprise (or Professional Company, I expect) you have a drop-down option for which library you want to use. You can mix and match the libraries used in a document or tab. I rarely add materials so I when I need to add / edit a material, I export the library from Onshape each time, edit it, re-upload, and Version the document.