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exporting at 1:1
I need to export 160 drawings
each part will be laser cut and needs to have the part number etched onto it to avoid confusion for fabrication.
In solidworks I would put the text on the flat pattern on the drawing,
In onshape, I can't export all my drawings 1:1, they're too big for the sheet, and I can't quick-export the dxfs because they don't include dotted bend lines or the part number.
what're my options,
Thinking I need to be able to export a drawing at 1:1 as a dxf even if the sheet scale is 1:20 (for example)
Joe
0
Comments
Are your parts really larger than 1800"?
Because that's how big you can make a drawing sheet so I would think you should be able to just make larger sheets and export the drawings 1:1…
Eric, I think he's trying to avoid doing that 160 times. Sounds like a potentially easy task for someone with feature script knowledge.
joe, Is there a reason you can't just export from the flat pattern view in the part studio. you can add a sketch for the part# and it will export the part# and the flat pattern with bend lines.
also note you do not need to make a sheet to fit the part 1:1. Just the view has to be 1:1
This is generally where you still need Autocad, Ares kudo/commander or any dxf editing software you have available. The default layers and lines are too much for laser cutters without clean up.
I export from flat pattern directly from the versioned part stuido so the file name includes the name, partnumber and revision.
Open in Areas commander
Remove unwated lines and add any speific edits for helping press brakes like brake off tabs or etch small bend lines, apply etched part numebrs text etc
Purge unwanted layers - keeps it clean for laser cutters.
Resave to appropriate dxf year version depending on who is doing your laser cutting may need to save as older version.
I mostly do all this manually for our internal laser and keep it simple for the laser team without having to edit my dxf cut files.
All this depends on your laser requirements as some nesting software can decode the file name/layers/text within the dxf then automatilly apply that as a part number and etch on the parts.
We also get external people giving us dxf files to cut, sometimes they are too messy we have to reject and let them clean up or have to charge CAD time for us to clean their files up.
I often export a flat pattern drawing at 1;1 even though the drawing goes outside the page boundaries and it seems to work fine. The drawing page is blank with no title block or borders
thanks for the comment,
I'll provide some clarification
this is my biggest frustration with onshape currently:
I'm got a project with 160 drawings, the client needs these drawings at 1:1 for the laser, but they also need the drawings to all be A4
. I can add the part numbers now, thanks to your help., but when I want to export the flats, sometimes theyre the wrong way up?
It would be so simple just to export the drawing with everything as I need it at 1:1
is the best option to have a drawing beside the drawing border?
I still don’t see the issue other than having to do the same steps 160 times.
Place a sketch in the flat pattern with the part number, Export the flat pattern from the part studio, export the A4 drawing .
It seems easy but monotonous from where I’m sitting. I must be missing something that isn’t coming through your explaination of the issue and what is hindering that path for you.
Also if you export the A4 as DWG…I believe the it exports the geometry at full scale in model space with the borders and such in paper space.Okay, cheers for that, I'd heard the dwgs were coming up at 1:20 scale on the laser.
I have an additional issue:
I have 20 sheets in one drawings, and I want to export each sheet as a separate dxf, it seems to be putting all the sheets in one dxf rather than giving me a folder, is there a way to output them separately, or do I have to do them manually?
J
how to export all sheets of a drawing as separate items?
I am mistaken. Onshape does not export drawing geometry to model space full scale..which is unfortunate. I also get some errors when trying to open DWG in AutoCAD. but it seems to open fine.
If you look for this icon in the bottom left, you can export multiple drawings or parts from there all at one time. it will download a zip file containing the exports.
As far as I'm aware…laser cutters do not care about borders, notes, dimensions and such so you do not need to exports drawings for that. just the flat pattern. I think you will have to do those 1 at a time
nice, but is there a way to export multiple sheets??? not drawings?
I've got 20 sheets, in one drawing and need 20 dxfs. is the only way to do it one at a time?
I don't know what you mean by sheets in a drawing. each tab is its own drawing and you can export multiple drawing tabs as DXF. don't know what you mean by sheets
putting all my drawings in one allows me to export a single pdf of all the drawings, but when I export a dxf / dwg it crashes my other software because its a multi-page dxf/dwg?
nevermind, I'll just keep using one drawing per tab, but I not sure what the benefit of using multiple sheets is, if you cant export them as separate dwgs etc.