Using groups from assembly in drawings

to_ca

Trying to layout my parts for laser cutting. It's a set of shelves with many parts. I used the Auto Layout featurescript, which works great. The problem is my parts are too big to be able to put on a single page. I can make groups for each page in the assembly, but my only choice is to either put the whole assembly on a page (doesn't fit) or I have to lay out each element individually from the part studio (time consuming).

Any way I can make use of those groups from the assembly in the drawing?

Separate question: can I also have custom sizes for the drawing? I.e. the size of my sheet material, not A0, A1 etc.

brucebartlett

This would be a good use case for hiding parts from a drawing view, then you could hide the outline outside of the sheet and only get the visible line when exporting. 

Onshape hasn't got this ability yet but hopefully see it soon.

to_ca

That sounds useful! So the only thing I can do at the moment is lay out individually?

owen_sparks

Hi @to_ca

Might sound odd but do you need the drawing to be a full engineering drawing (with template) or are you just after the data?

For CNC toolpaths I now export a sketch as a dxf rather than bother with a drawing.  This has the advantage that it's already 1:1, doesn't have any extraneous waffle on it and can be as big as you like.

Workflow (all in PartStudio) :-
Design in 3D
Layout
Create new sketch
"Use" any and all features as required
Export sketch as DXF. (Right click on sketch in feature tree and chose "Export as DXF/DWG".)
Done.

For cluttered PartStudios I've taken to deriving the parts I want into a new PS first to keep it clean.

Dunno if that helps?

Cheers,

Owen S.

to_ca

Hi Owen,

I think what you suggested is what I'm doing already, just my particular machine happens to take a PDF rather than a DXF/DWG. I don't need all the diagrams, just the path.

Simply placing each feature down individually does work, but it's a pain because I already have a featurescript that handles the layout based on sheet size for me.

Copying everything into a new part studio to make a drawing of does work, but it's a bit tedious because then each time I make a change to the original part studio I have to repeat the process.

Daniel_Orchard

to_ca said:

"Any way I can make use of those groups from the assembly in the drawing?"

This would be a very useful addition. Ability to utilize assemblies (group) and sub assemblies defined in a single assembly (or better yet - part studio) on drawings. Create a drawing for each part - assembly - sub assembly directly.

Possibly the model tree available in the drawings - unique to each individual view - would help a lot.

Unless this is available already?

alekesey_k

I don't know what you mean by "Copying everything into a new part studio to make a drawing of does work", but the following just worked for me (I'm also using the Auto Layout feature).

1. Create a new assembly and insert the part studio into the assembly
2. Select the parts for the first sheet in the assembly, right click and "Copy N items"
3. Create another assembly, right click and "Paste N items"
4. Repeat 2-3 for each sheet
5. In the drawing insert assemblies created on step 3 into their respective sheets

I've tried updating part dimensions in the original part studio and then refreshing the drawing and the changes did get to the drawing

If you add new parts or the layout changes so that parts get re-arranged then you will need to re-copy the parts from the first assembly to each sheet's assembly I suppose (I've not tried yet) and probably you will also need to update the first assembly.

bradley_sauln

Adding on to what @owen_sparks laid out to then get a pdf.

When exporting a sketch as a dxf/dwg, you can choose the option to store as a new tab in the document.
When the new tab is created, right click on it and select 'create an Onshape Drawing'.
From here you will have a clean 1:1 drawing view of your layout that you can then export as a PDF.

A little round-about I know, but better than having to split up and create separate drawings in my opinion.