Creating list of dimensions of rectangular sheet parts

andrew_spalding

Hi,

I'm fabricating parts from rectangular sections of flat sheet.

In order to create drawings to cut the required dimensions I'm currently creating the part, making an assembly with each of the parts mated to each other to form a flat sheet, creating a drawing of that sheet, and dimensioning it. Seems like an awful lot of work to get simple length/width/thickness info. It actually seems easier to go manually through each part and work out the dimensions from sketches and extrusion lengths, but updating then also becomes a manual task.

Is there any way to extract information from each part to present in a list, rather than as a drawing. I had a look at the scripting function, but this seems aimed at creating features in a part studio.

I guess it's a very specific issue, and I don't expect an out-of-the-box solution, but any thoughts would be appreciated!

Regards,

Andrew

3dcad

@andrew_spalding
This should be part of BOM (Bill Of Materials) to keep track of parts dimensions and show them up in spreadsheet view. At the moment it is not possible but @oleg_shilovitsky is working hard to get dimensions from models to bom. But as much as I love the multipart studio, it makes this task a lot harder than it is with part per file system where you can simply add certain parameter name into bom and fetch value for each part.

I'm designing & manufacturing sheet based furniture so it would be essential for me to get cut list for model. Today we have to check dimensions manually.

For your workflow, try to search auto-layout feature script; it should remove one step from your work as it automatically creates layout for your assembly..

3dcad

@andrew_spalding
This should be part of BOM (Bill Of Materials) to keep track of parts dimensions and show them up in spreadsheet view. At the moment it is not possible but @oleg_shilovitsky is working hard to get dimensions from models to bom. But as much as I love the multipart studio, it makes this task a lot harder than it is with part per file system where you can simply add certain parameter name into bom and fetch value for each part.

I'm designing & manufacturing sheet based furniture so it would be essential for me to get cut list for model. Today we have to check dimensions manually.

For your workflow, try to search auto-layout feature script; it should remove one step from your work as it automatically creates layout for your assembly..

oleg_shilovitsky

@3dcad  @andrew_spalding

I hope API for geometry will be available soon. As soon as we have it, we will put geometry into BOM. We support similar information in our integrations with other CAD systems. 

3dcad

@oleg_shilovitsky @lougallo
I'm not sure what 'API for geometry' means do you then have access to given dimensions? variables? geometry size in general?

Just out of curiosity, how can you make difference between piece x, y and z dimension? Or do you plan to use global coordinates to determine those?

For me, that would be no good. If I draw say a cabinet; only horizontal panels would have x,y and z correct. Vertical panels would have coord z = dim x and vice versa + there are also panels in various other positions.

Or are you thinking to fetch only variable names&values? So that we need to create variable for each dimension we wan't to appear into bom?

For some reason I'm very interested in how this can be done in Onshape. Mainly because I don't have the ultimate solution in my head even though I give it few seconds thought almost every day..

oleg_shilovitsky

@3dcad

Rami, there is no API to extract dimensions. Some CAD systems can give us Area, Volume, Mass, X, Y, Z dimensions. There is no such API with Onshape for the moment and therefore we cannot extract this data and put it in the BOM. 

I'm talking only about API to extract dimensions. It is not about how to change geometry from BOM - that would be a different story . 

I hope it helps. Let me know if you have more questions. 

Best, Oleg

claudio_2

Hi Oleg,
I hope you can find something interesting here https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/3910/auto-layout-feature.
Perhaps you can extract dimensions by create bounding boxes.

I hope it helps

Ciao, Claudio

oleg_shilovitsky

@claudio_2
thanks for the link! Yes, we are planning to support bounding box dimensions in openBoM. Hopefully it will be in one of our Nov production updates. 

claudio_2

@oleg_shilovitsky
Hi Oleg, thank you for the information!
Meanwhile you are working on bounding boxes can you look if there is the way to get, given an origin point, the characteristics of every hole (dimension, deep, position x, position y)?
This can be a cool topic, that can solve some post processor problem.
In fact some  woodworking machines have an onboard optimization sw that once having imported such as txt files, it can create the necessary gcode.
I look forward to see the next SP.

Best :-) Claudio

oleg_shilovitsky

@claudio_2
thanks for the tip!

oleg_shilovitsky

@andrew_spalding
@3dcad
@claudio_2

I hope we made something that can be useful for you to get L/W/T dimensions and placing them to BOM in a consistent way. 

Take a look here- https://medium.com/@openbom/how-openbom-extracts-part-dimensions-from-onshape-f6c40f2edb20

It is available in current openBoM production, so you can try it now. 

Let me know - would like to have your feedback. 

Best, Oleg

3dcad

thanks @oleg_shilovitsky I will try the new version asap and put in some feedback..

oleg_shilovitsky

3dcad said:

thanks @oleg_shilovitsky I will try the new version asap and put in some feedback..

Rami, I look forward to your comments!