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Design Table/Family Table App Interest?

mbattistellombattistello Member, Developers Posts: 51 ✭✭
I see many posts about the need for design table/family table capabilities. The use case is to create a master model and then be able to generate variants of the model based on parameters. A simple example could be a o-ring that varies in diameter and thickness with each variant having a unique part number. 

Ive prototyped an App for this that uses the API interfaces to build out the variants. Im wondering if there is interest in this? Id also love feedback on my approach.

Here is what I was thinking.

1. Google Sheets connect app approach. Would work similar to the OnShape BOM Google Sheets app. 
2. You would first model your part in a Part Studio and parameterize it as needed.
3. Google Sheet would connect to OnShape and extract that parameters into the spreadsheet. It would give you a table that you could complete. You would input the values you want for the parameters and also a field to put in a part number.
4. The app would then clone the master model into a new tab/element. It would then push the updated parameter values to the tab. This process would continue thru the variants you had identified in the spreadsheet.
5. This would give you a single document, ex O-Rings, and then a separate Part Studio for each variant. 

Im interested in feedback on the approach and usefulness of this.

A couple risks/concerns I have so far,

1. Is there a limit on number of tabs/elements in document? A part with tons of variants, 100s-1000s, might have issues.
2. Is replicating the master model into separate tabs/elements the right approach? Is it possible/better to generate new docs for each variant and then build them as parent/child so that if you need to update the master model all the children get the update?
3. I dont know how this would scale up to the use case where there is a single, central repository, and then everyone uses it but is given the capability to put in their own PNs (this was a common thread in the prev discussions).

Best Answer

Answers

  • mahirmahir Member, Developers Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2016
    I'm sure the interest is great, but I have a feeling that configuration support is near the top of Onshape's todo list. That being said, I don't know how you'd feel investing time into a product that will likely become obsolute sooner than later. But if you're looking for something to do, why not. It may give the OS developers some ideas for implementation.
  • mbattistellombattistello Member, Developers Posts: 51 ✭✭
    @mahir I was thinking same also. Was using this post to troll that risks also although I dont expect OnShape folks to comment on future enhancements. :smile:
  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    @mbattistello I'm looking to create tooling drawings for cnc machine programs from spreadsheet data. This sounds ideal for cnc machining facilities.
  • lougallolougallo Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 2,001
    edited October 2016
    @mbattistello I have also already written something like this in Google Sheets (also the developer behind GSheets BOM app).  This is something we are going to eventually build into Onshape due the importance of generating configurable parts.  Let me know if you have questions about various approaches..  
    Lou Gallo / PD/UX - Support - Community / Onshape, Inc.
  • billy2billy2 Member, OS Professional, Mentor, Developers, User Group Leader Posts: 2,014 PRO
    mbattistello I think Lou has done it. You should check it out.


  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    @lougallo is this available or are you working on this? Will this be able to build a spread sheet from created variables?
    I'm also interested in the ability to auto-generate drawings from these different configurations, would this even be possible?

  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    edited October 2016
    Can you use google sheets to pull parameters from model? I would really need part dimensions into bom and while waiting for something better I could create parameter for each important dimension..
    //rami
  • mbattistellombattistello Member, Developers Posts: 51 ✭✭
    @3dcad the approach would be to setup parameters that then drive the features/dimensions in the part in the Part Studio. The spreadsheet first connects to your part and extracts these and puts them in a spreadsheet format. You can then load in part numbers and the variations on the parameters. For example you could have a "kitchen table" part that lets you set the length, width, and height. You could then setup different variants - table-12x12x24, table-12x24x24, table-24x24x24 and it would use the parameter table to generate each of these models based on the master model. All of the variants would be created in a separate tab of the document. You end up with a single document that includes all the variants of the part so you can use them in assemblies. 
  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    @mbattistello by parameters do you mean variables?
  • lougallolougallo Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 2,001
    @_Dave_ Yes I wrote this about a year ago as a test with our API and Google sheets.  I don't think creating new tabs is a great scenario... maybe snapping versions with the config name would be more ideal since that is what will be required to link these into other documents.  Variants will be key to our system and we are hard at work adding this to the product.  Here is a quick view of what I had just prototyped.  I am not doing anything fancy here.  


    Lou Gallo / PD/UX - Support - Community / Onshape, Inc.
  • mbattistellombattistello Member, Developers Posts: 51 ✭✭
    @lougallo if you are capturing the different configurations in different versions then how do you use these in an assembly mode? Will you get a BOM that can show all the PNs used?

    I was generating different tabs so that you could manage the entire family of parts in a single file and so that you be able to assign different PNs and attributes to each so your BOM will show them.

    In the screenshot below all the blocks are from the same document. Im just varying the dimensions on each (and the color just so its more visible). Each variant is a separate tab based on the "master" part. 

    Will using versions given you a similar affect?

    The on issue with this is that if you need to update the master model and then update the variants then any place you are using that individual variant breaks. You can see what with the PN-10x10x35 in red.I deleted it and then generated it again but its a new element so the old links break. I think with your approach of versions this can be avoided as you can just update the link to the new version.




  • lougallolougallo Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 2,001
    You would use them as linked documents.  You could browse to a document (part family name) then you pick the version which would represent the part number.  I would avoid generating every part in a new tab as that get messy to navigate... These are the challenges to doing it this way.  Ideally you want to have them linked in as many of these are going to be built and left along (unchanged) since a change would ideally be a new part number.  Links to not break which is why we do versions.

    When they are all in once workspace and then you snap a version to be able to use them, new configs would require regeneration and a new version.. Linking them becomes a big messy since V1 might have 5 configs but V2 has those 5 plus the new ones you built.. so it becomes hard to discern which Version to pick when you might just want the first Config, which is identical in both V1 and V2...


    Lou Gallo / PD/UX - Support - Community / Onshape, Inc.
  • mbattistellombattistello Member, Developers Posts: 51 ✭✭
    @lougallo this makes sense. I tried it and it makes sense. I could also see where you can obsolete a previous part and then generate a new version and replace it in the assembly.

    Is there an API for generating versions? I looked but didnt see anything. 
  • lougallolougallo Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 2,001
    @mbattistello Currently the Create Versions endpoint is internal... I can check on that for you.
    Lou Gallo / PD/UX - Support - Community / Onshape, Inc.
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