Intro to Part Design basic question

tom_seibold

I took Onshape basic online training about four years ago and happily used the platform to create some useful parts. After some time away, I recently came back to create more parts and am now taking the "CAD Basics" course as a brush-up/refresher. However, I'm finding it more difficult than the first time around, starting with the first exercise in "Sketch Creation!" Specifically, step 2 instructs you to "Sketch a corner rectangle corner rectangle as shown . . . Be sure the origin is located at the midpoint of the bottom line." However, I am unclear on how to "Be sure the origin is located at the midpoint of the bottom line," because as I draw the corner rectangle by clicking and dragging along the vertical level of the origin point, no midpoint constraint or "snap" ever appears. Even when I complete the rectangle with its bottom on the vertical level of the origin point, then drag the left or right edges of the rectangle to be what looks equidistant from the edges, no midpoint constraint or "snap" ever happens to confirm I'm in the right place, and no midpoint constraint icon ever appears. What am I doing wrong? (The course I took four years ago was so precise and unambiguous, I never felt lost and made rapid progress. What I've seen from the new course strikes me as very ambiguous and imprecise in its directions.)

MDesign

https://learn.onshape.com/courses/fundamentals-sketching

Click that link for a good solid base that is not rushed. You can skip past the parts that you already know and it even gives you a test at the end

glen_dewsbury

Use the midpoint constraint.

tom_seibold

Thanks. Although I'm not seeing a horizontal menu of constraints such as you show in your screenshot (I see only a vertical list), that did work using the vertical list. However, a new problem has appeared, something that I never recall seeing before in OnShape four years ago: When I make any sketch (such as a basic rectangle), and it appears to draw properly, and I check the green checkbox to close and "approve" my sketch, the sketch name in the feature list now has a "blue circle with minus sign" next to it and the alert that "sketch is not fully defined." No matter what I sketch, that message appears over and over.

MDesign

Can you spot the difference? one is fully defined the other is not.

Onshape needs a link on the tool tip that says not fully defined that leads to an explaination and training. 😉

jelte_steur814

the blue minus sign is a warning/information, but definately not an error. check this post for details

tom_seibold

Thanks for the left/right comparison, @MDesign. Yes, I see the coincident constraint on the second one, but I still don't know how it got that constraint while the first did not. In my own experiments, everything I draw is blue—no exceptions. I understand what blue stands for, but don't understand how to get to that state.

tom_seibold

@jelte_steur814 , thanks for the tip. I read the whole post you linked to and understand well what the colors mean. I just don't know how to get a fully defined (black) sketch. I open a new document, create a simple center-point circle or corner rectangle, and it's always blue—no exceptions. I don't know how to fix that.

MDesign

@tom_seibold have you seen the learning Onshape website yet? Goes over all the constraints that you can create. For the circle if you click on a point os will assume you want the center locked to that point (coincident. If you see blue just click and drag whatever is blue. If it moves then you know what needs constrained. If you don’t know how to do that, you need to watch the videos on sketching training.

tom_seibold

Thanks again. I have indeed taken advantage of the learning site. As stated above, after several years away from Onshape, I am going through the "Intro to Part Design" course and getting updated about this (earlier not in use) color indicator for "not fully defined." I have gone through all the training videos that the course has presented up to this point in the lessons, and just rewatched the one on constraints. Although it features someone speed-talking and speed-demoing these features, the embedded video player has a control to slow down the playback speed and that helped to make it more comprehensible. Thanks to that and the helpful comments of those of you who responded to my question, I can now proceed with further training.

MDesign

https://learn.onshape.com/courses/fundamentals-sketching

Click that link for a good solid base that is not rushed. You can skip past the parts that you already know and it even gives you a test at the end