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I cannot change the distance between two objects
jake_wise449
Member Posts: 8 EDU
I have been working with Onshape for a while now and can get usually figure out how to do what I need to do. But now I have run up against a problem that I cannot figure out how to resolve besides deleting parts of the design and redesigning. It should be simple but I cannot figure it out. I have designed a Gridfinity container to hold Allen wrenches and the like. I have measurements between the different slots to space things out but there are a few slots that when I use the measure tool to set the distance the measurement shows as a reference measurement (its grey) and if I try to change it things turn red. There are also some of the slots that I cannot add a radius to the bottom, if I try all of the radiuses turn red. I have run into these issues before and have just deleted parts of the drawing and recreated. I have spent entirely too long attempting to figure this out. Now I'd like to figure out what I am doing wrong.
Here is a link to my project: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/aa08ce2604f653730e5c9cf4/w/94ee02143e0cc4f49b4672e2/e/220655e7250577bd9d744eb6
The main issue of not being able to set the dimensions is shown in the sceenshot marked in red. I also left in the reference measurements to make it easier to identify
.
It doesn't matter which one of those two reference measurements I try to change it still goes red. Let me know if you need additional info, I tried to provide anything you might need. Any advice would be appreciated.
As a secondary question, does anyone know of a better Gridfinity generator for Onshape? I am currently using this: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/2656e145ce591685c0881182/w/6ccc6aa21496006f7548a747/e/12681ec122817948d554da89
It works fine except the height adjustment is a little odd. Height of 1 equals 6u and I would also like to have the option of the glueless magnet holes like on Gridfinity Extended.
Edited to add that all of these measurements are in sketch 2
Answers
Your document isn't public and your screenshot isn't working.
Thank you for pointing this out. I have corrected the screenshot and made the document public. It is giving me an issue though, when I tested the link the document pulls up but the options from the script do not stay and it doesn't look correct when I am logged out and view. If I am logged in it looks fine.. Any suggestions?
still cannot access the document…
the 'measurement tool' you use in sketch is actually the dimension tool.
when the dimension is black, it is making the sketch behave according to it. (called driving)
when the dimension is grey, it's only a reference/measurement (called driven).
when it is red, it means it is conflicting with other dimensions and cannot solve.
usually the other constraits that are in the chain of conflict will also turn red to help figure out where the chain is. (although this is not always easy.)
since you've determined the width of the slot, and the width of the slot determines the radius of the fillet, you cannot choose the radius of the fillet again. so make those dimensions driven, iso driving and the fillets will work fine.
since you've set the width of the slots, and there spacing from the right of the tray, as well as all the way from the left, in the middle there's a resulting gap, which is fully determined by those dimensions.
if you want to change the gap, one of the other dimensions (e.g. the distance of the last one to the end of the tray, will have to be set to driven, or else a conflict will arise.
Jelte, Thank you for taking the time to look at my problem and comment. I think I understand what you are saying. For now I removed all of the fillets, found that I made a stupid mistake ( I designed part of one element in another sketch) and corrected that and then removed all measurements from in between the slots. Then I started setting the dimensions in-between the slots working from right to left. I get to the same gap and when I set the dimension there are still a bunch of conflicts. The thing that really is confusing is there are measurements in the vertical direction that are turning red and I cannot understand why those would be affected.
Is there a good reference for how to find the root cause when things are conflicting? I would prefer to know how to solve it myself and not just scrap things and start over. This project would be simple to start over but as I work on more complex designs that would be helpful.
I am attaching another screenshot with a few notes if you notice anything useful please let me know. The purple arrows point to parts that I cannot understand why they are affected when I try to set the dimension that breaks things (All of the conflicts are confusing but logically this portion makes less sense.). The yellow shows the area that comes up as a reference measurement and of course when I attempt to change this I get all of the conflicts. Thanks Again!
hmm, the fillets again determine the width of the slots, so those make sense. he vertical measurements first don't make sense.
But sometimes deleting conflicting measurements, especially those that don't make sense allows you to learn how the sketch constraints deviate from the expectations you have in your head. perhaps it comes to a solution, stuff jumps into place and you have an aha moment! there's a constraint that shouldn't be there. then ctrl-z and remove just that constraint.
Notice how some lines and especially vertices are black and some are blue? the black ones are fully determined. so before you set het yellow dimension, the tip of that slot has 3 fully determined vertices. How come? perhaps a constraint snapped into place there accidentally that you are unaware of?
BTW on another note, I would choose a different approach all together that leverages Onshapes built in capabilities better than redrawing the same slot over and over again. I'd actually model one slot. (is it going to be an extruded cut from something?). make a linear pattern (perhaps look into the "linear pattern+" FS. then with move faces, you can put a translation on the top round end of the slot and make them longer one at a time. and possilbly offset some of the thicker ones…
IF the steps between the slots have a recurring pattern, there could be an even more advanced route with an iterating variable for the slot length in the linear pattern. but perhaps that's taking it too far for now…