Use a part with 5000+ pieces in an assembly

josh_tinkham

I'm designing an avionics panel in an aircraft. All I care about is the outer shell of each avionics component to determine where to cut holes in the panel, route wires etc. I have models for a couple of the avionics boxes from manufactuers. But unlike most of the avionics models I have, these are not one piece I can click anywhere on and move around. For the PMA450C audio panel, the model has 5000+ components which makes it very cumbersome to work with in the panel assembly.

The best lead I got was to make a composite part, however that is available in part studio. The document I have has the box created in an assembly and I can't figure out how to get it back into a part studio.

Suggestions appreciated!

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4443cb4f92cf6564d410eb1c/w/d3091e235b1b040e71592b0d/e/44601bb86dd47737b3daa1df

nick_papageorge073

Start over, and import it a different way. This will take some effort up front, but the end result will be a light weight model, of only the items you want. I do this a lot when importing PCB's where I need some of the components but not all of them. "Import to a single document" which I believe is what you did, splits up the PCB's into many sub-assemblies of many individual resistors in their own tab. It's not that useful IMO. I do the "combine to a single part studio" 99% of the time, whether the import is a pcb, or a mechanical item from McMaster-Carr, etc.

Once it finishes importing (it will take a while), there will be about 4800 surfaces, and 650 parts. You can shift click on all 4800 surfaces from the tree easily, and once all selected, hit the "delete part" button. Those surfaces are all junk in this model. That will get you down to the 650 parts only.

The model might already be light enough at this point. If you want to go further, hide all the big sheetmetal and pcb's from the graphics by picking them with your mouse from the graphics (not the tree, since you won't know which is which in the tree) and pressing Y. Leave only the tiny resistors, capacitors, inductors, etc visible on the screen. Now, put a big mouse box around everything left on the screen. Press "delete part again". This will delete all the things you don't need. You can do this with a few separate "delete part" features if needed.

Now all that is left are the parts you want. "show all parts" to see them all. At this stage you can do new modeling in this part studio. Or, put a window around everything and make it one composite part. Or, even put a window around only certain areas to make a few composite parts. etc.

Here is the end result:

Link:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ac1ab73b2fc4bed09645a16c/v/7d0921cef811a087f7114cde/e/fd0d905c8201248e24b04344

eric_pesty

Try this:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3f84343841cb6d7fead072c8/v/63c4121ba31d1d244bd8d37f/e/e6b43bb1112db2e0f9f965b0

You could also crate a configuration where most things are suppressed except for the few parts you need for the overall dimensions (might be quicker depending on what it looks like…

josh_tinkham

In the tab I linked, I tried to delete some of the interior parts. But there's no option to delete. What am I missing?

MDesign

not exactly sure what you need to do, but would exporting only the parts you need to reference to a step or parasolid file and then importing them back into a new part studio get you where you need to go?

nick_papageorge073

Start over, and import it a different way. This will take some effort up front, but the end result will be a light weight model, of only the items you want. I do this a lot when importing PCB's where I need some of the components but not all of them. "Import to a single document" which I believe is what you did, splits up the PCB's into many sub-assemblies of many individual resistors in their own tab. It's not that useful IMO. I do the "combine to a single part studio" 99% of the time, whether the import is a pcb, or a mechanical item from McMaster-Carr, etc.

Once it finishes importing (it will take a while), there will be about 4800 surfaces, and 650 parts. You can shift click on all 4800 surfaces from the tree easily, and once all selected, hit the "delete part" button. Those surfaces are all junk in this model. That will get you down to the 650 parts only.

The model might already be light enough at this point. If you want to go further, hide all the big sheetmetal and pcb's from the graphics by picking them with your mouse from the graphics (not the tree, since you won't know which is which in the tree) and pressing Y. Leave only the tiny resistors, capacitors, inductors, etc visible on the screen. Now, put a big mouse box around everything left on the screen. Press "delete part again". This will delete all the things you don't need. You can do this with a few separate "delete part" features if needed.

Now all that is left are the parts you want. "show all parts" to see them all. At this stage you can do new modeling in this part studio. Or, put a window around everything and make it one composite part. Or, even put a window around only certain areas to make a few composite parts. etc.

Here is the end result:

Link:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/ac1ab73b2fc4bed09645a16c/v/7d0921cef811a087f7114cde/e/fd0d905c8201248e24b04344

josh_tinkham

The model already came from a .step file. Everything I need is already in Onshape. Do I really need to export and reimport just to remove pieces from an assembly?

MDesign

Have you explored edit in context yet?