Merging Parts Studios?

3Dzyner

We have multiple Parts Studios, each with a single part. We'd like to place all those parts into a single Parts Studio. Is there some way to copy/move parts between Parts Studios?
(Our real problem is we'd like to make measurements between parts and we find the measure tool doesn't always allow us to select edges, points or lines that we specifically would like to use in order to make the distance measurements. So if we combine the parts, we'd at least be able to use the dumbed-down approach of creating a drawing and drawing lines between points to make measurements.)

john_f_carr

Look at import derived (one of the icons with an arrow pointing into it).  That imports parts from one Part Studio into another.

philip_thomas

While it's true that Derive will bring multiple parts into a Part Studio, that is a very 'expensive' (performance) operation. 
If as you say your goal is to measure between parts in an assembly (perfectly reasonable and should work flawlessly), them i would like to know what the problem is (so that we can fix it). Lets solve that and please do not use derive to achieve your goal

owen_sparks

3Dzyner said:

(Our real problem is we'd like to make measurements between parts and we find the measure tool doesn't always allow us to select edges, points or lines that we specifically would like to use in order to make the distance measurements.

My first thought here is that you have a sketch visible in front of the part that you wish to pick a point or edge from and its therefore masking what you need to get to.  If this is the case hit the "hide all sketches" option and give it another go.

I'm surprised you're having problems, I've been using OS at work for more than a year and have found the measure tool to be one of those things you take for granted as it "just works".

Hope you get it sorted.

Owen S.

3dcad

To make small measurement points stand out, you can zoom in and add mate connector for easier locating. I too like the measurement tooll and have been very satisfied from the day it appeared into Onshape.

+1 for solving this in assembly workspace

StephenG

Going back to the original question: "Merge Part Studios?"

In other words...
Is it possible to merge Part Studios? 
Is it possible to copy/move a part from one Part Studio to another Part Studio in the same document, another document?

The answer appears to be NO.

It would be nice to have someone from OS state the underlying reason(s) why this is not possible (supported) instead of guessing. It is my guess the reason part merge/copy/move this is not supported is due to the complex geometrical and history dependencies that typically exist between parts in a Part Studio; it is just not possible (practical) to untangle a part in one Part Studio and insert it into another Part Studio in a robust way. 

Using the "Derive" function appears to be an interesting workaround, however, as was pointed out it may be "expensive" performance wise. Creating a Folder to group related parts that would normally exist in a single Part Studio is an interesting suggestion.  It maybe be helpful at a human data management level but it doesn't get you much in terms of leveraging the data for other purposes where parts needs to "see" other parts.  

I am surprised no one suggested creating an assembly of the parts. It seems to me this would be the most logical approach. The assembly gets you the context where measurements can be made between parts and allows part modeling in the assembly context, giving you the ability to create geometrical inter dependencies between parts.

I recently had a desire to merge a bunch of parts in different Part Studios which where created by the importing of Parasolid models.  Seeing that I could not merge Part Studios, or copy/move parts between Part Studios, I ended up creating an assembly of the parts.

brucebartlett

@StephenG sometimes I will make an assembly of imported parts in desired, logical positions, then export as parasolid and reimport to a flattened part studio to get a good starting point moving forwards for interrelational edits.

paulo_rogério_de_oliveira

I made a slighly complex top down like model and now i want to merge some of the part studios in one single (i regretted to separate some of them). Actually i can copy each sketch, but ill like to copy an entire part studio