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Referencing a previous version as a derived part in a part studio
dave_franchino
Member Posts: 68 ✭✭
in General
Hi all,
I’d like to compare my redesign against a previous version of the same part — just visually, not with parametric references. I thought I could do this with the Derive tool, but it only lets me select parts from other Part Studios, not from an earlier version of the same one.
Is this expected behavior? What’s the best workaround to overlay an older version for comparison?
Thanks!
Dave
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Comments
Depending on what you mean by compare, there's a compare tool built in which can do a lot.
https://carbon.onshape.com/help/Content/compare.htm?Highlight=compare
I also often just like to open a second browser tab or window and navigate to the other version. This is often more powerful than the compare or view in repair modes.
Simon Gatrall | Staff Mechanical Engineer | Carbon, Inc.
If you are just trying to look at part "volume", then the built in compare tool seems like the way to go.
I believe deriving a part studio into itself could cause weird things when updating a version etc… However you can create a new part studio and derive both the old and current version in there if you want to compare that way for some reason.
Good point @eric_pesty . I've done that before as well, but forgot to mention.
You can also make an assembly with both versions or one version and a workspace reference. I've definitely done that for some types of comparing. It can be nice to make one of the parts mated with a slider mate with limits. One end of the limits puts the two versions on top of one another, and the other end is spaced far enough to be good for looking at the two items side by side.
Simon Gatrall | Staff Mechanical Engineer | Carbon, Inc.
Having a second window open is an approach I've used but in this case I'm looking to actually have the parts on top of one another. I'm extending a "pipe" via multiple sweeps and comparing a couple of different "paths" I can take to end up at the same location. It would be really useful to have them in the part studio. I know I can make an assembly and put different versions in that but it's a bit of a pain to have to keep swtiching over to the assembly to see how they compare.
This "tech tip" seems to imply that having a derived feature that references a specific "Version" is supposed to be possible.
https://www.onshape.com/en/resource-center/tech-tips/referencing-a-version-within-a-single-document
Scroll down to the section "Derived Feature with a Version Reference"
I'm guessing it only works if you create a new part studio which I guess makes sense but is a bit of a bummer.
One more potential option: create an assembly with your current and old version and edit your current one "in context". that would be a good way to have a "ghost" of your older version directly in your current part studio.