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Split part - What determines which side is which?
Andre_Comella
Member Posts: 66 PRO
When using the Split feature to split a part, I get two parts, great. But one of these parts seems to have the same "identity" as the original, and the other is "new". What determines which side of a split is the old part and which one is the new? Can I control it?
My main reason for asking is that inserting a split into the middle of a feature tree can cause errors when downstream features reference the wrong body
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Answers
I don't understand how you get one identical and one new? In my case there will be two identical parts with the same name.
Also it does not matter at all how I start the split so I cannot see how to influence which part is the original and which is the additional.
What I do straight after each split is to rename the parts logically to their function, so later on I cannot mistakingly address the wrong part.
If your experience is different, i.e. you do get a new part with a different name, this is something I cannot check as my system is not behaving the same way. I would not know why it would be different to be honest with you.
I know. This sucks.
The best way to prevent that is to Transform-copy in place-. this way you ensure a new part is created.
then split each of them without 'keep both sides'.
One of the first custom features 'Split to new" i built was for this particular issue.
So what is different to this "split to new" if in the standard split you rename the new parts immediately after the split?
I have to say I never had any issue at all with doing it this way and unless I am missing something, I do not see any immediate problem!
@kees_bijker if through changes earlier in the feature tree the splitting tool (surface or plane) changes direction, the newly split parts will change identity. and all features downstream will loose their references.
With the split-to-new FS, this might still happen, but the 'opposite direction' button can be hit to repair it in one click.
Ok, never had that happen yet but good to know I suppose. Its like in context design and nothing ever happens UNTIL that day you forgot it was in context and you do a transform on it and your whole assembly is up the creek 🤣
There must be a ton of these troubles lurking inside onshape that you might never experience.
It's not the part name. There is an internal "part/surface ID" that gets referenced by later features. It also comes up when doing merges. In that case, the part/surface you pick first in the dialog box gets its ID propagated throughout the rest of the parts/surfaces merged to it. So when doing merges, it's important to pay attention to the order of the picks. This is probably true in most cad programs.