I want to gather solidworks parts into a part studio and continue working on them there. How?

bill_rayner

Derived parts are cumbersome as you have to modify each part in a seperate browser tab, then create new versions etc: very messy. It seems by far the best way is to make an assembly of the parts in solidworks and pack&go it then import the lot. Is that true?

However, if I find later I've left some of the parts out of the P&G, I'm back to the derived parts mess.

bradley_sauln

You can directly edit parts derived into the same part studio. You do not have to go back and make edits to the originating part studio. The best part is, if you do make updates to the originating part, it will not automatically update the derived part if it is in a different document.

Let me know if this makes sense. I am happy to explain further and provide an example.

bradley_sauln

You can directly edit parts derived into the same part studio. You do not have to go back and make edits to the originating part studio. The best part is, if you do make updates to the originating part, it will not automatically update the derived part if it is in a different document.

Let me know if this makes sense. I am happy to explain further and provide an example.

philip_thomas

Another method would be to select the 'flatten' option on import.
This will create a single part studio with all the parts in.
BOOM!

brucebartlett

Hi @bill_rayner I have also used a work flow where I take an assembly with parts all in position and import that via a step file into a single Onshape tab using the 'flattern' option as mentioned by @philip_thomas. You kinda have only the one chance to get this right otherwise to have to derive parts in. Worked fair well in my situation although I found multiple part instances to be a pain and had to delete all the multiples to stop confusion.

A while back @ilya_baran posted for feedback on an import updating system, this may be the solution to your problem in the future. Not sure how this would look in the feature tree after you have done mods to the original import, maybe you would see a new feature 'updated import'. Looking forward to developments in this space. See post  importing updating system here 

bill_rayner

Thanks all for the quick response; derived parts are definitely the answer for adding parts one at a time as required. The optional update feature looked dangerous when I used it a while back, but it would be very hard to do by mistake.

With two decades of solidworks designs to reuse I can't bring it all in at once.