Designing Around Third-party Assemblies

derek_ward

I am a new OS user and I'm trying to figure out how to migrate my processes from Solidworks. One thing that I miss is editing parts within the context of an assembly. I know that it is being investigated and that the current suggestion is to model everything in a parts studio. This works well in most cases, however, I often need to work with third-party assemblies. I have successfully imported assemblies into OS as assemblies or flattened parts studios, however, OS doesn't seem to allow me to use the Derived function to bring in Assemblies or entire Parts Studios to build parts around. Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

malay_kumar

We are working on better workflows to support this. But is there a reason you can't do what you want to do in flattened part studios as opposed to looking to derive from part studio? I can understand if you are looking to design multiple part in the context of same assembly then it will be multiple imports but is there any other reason.

In any case this is a workaround for now and we will have better efficient workflows in future.

derek_ward

Malay,

Thank you for your response.  I am glad that you are working on better workflows to support this.  The problem with using a flattened part studio is that you can not use the Derived feature on the entire flattened parts studio, only parts of it.  

For example, how might I take a part like this and design some aluminum tube to connect it to?  It seems much easier in Solidworks.  

Thanks again!

malay_kumar

Thanks for providing the example.  I was just wondering why you prefer to not model the aluminum tube in flattened part studio itself and preferred to derive a new part studio from flattened parts studio for your new part.

I understand the suggested workaround is a multi-step process. Stay tuned for more features supporting this need.

derek_ward

In some cases that might work, but sometimes I need to work with more than one flattened Parts Studio on the same tube. It would just be easier to edit parts in the context of an assembly, or at least be able to Derive an entire Parts Studio (or assembly) into another Parts Studio.  Also, I wish that the following want the case:

• You can insert a derived feature from only one parent Part Studio at a time. Open the Derived dialog again to select from an additional Part Studio. (https://cad.onshape.com/help/#derived.htm?TocPath=Part%20Studios|Feature%20Tools|_____25) 

 Looking forward to some updates! 

derek_ward

Well, I am trying to go about this in a different way by creating a sketch in the imported Flattened Assembly Parts Studio and then deriving that sketch into my other Parts Studio.  The only problem is that I can't transform the sketch by using Mate Connectors (transforming Derived parts via Mate Connectors works just fine).  Does anyone have any experience translating Derived sketches?  Thanks.