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automatic part alignment according to thickness.
YWC
Member Posts: 13 PRO
as someone who works with mdf and chipboard panels that are cut on a cnc i have found a lack of usefull tools or apps for turning an assembled project into workable vector files.
what i think would be an easy solution is creating a tool that takes all parts with a constant thickness of X and creates another assembly where the parts are assembled with the x value in the z axis. this allows me to create a drawing from the top, scaled 1:1 and export it as a dxf , giving me lines that are easy to work on further.
so far the apps offered in the app store require prior preparation of the assembly and often give files that are hard to work with.
possible additions would be:
Adding part name on or next to the parts. (single line fonts would allow parts to get engraved with a part number)
If a part is used more than once, the parts show up in groups.
Separation by color so for example 18mm thick mdf can be separated from 18mm thick chipboard, by editing appearance before using the tool.
Minimum distance between parts after alignment.
what i think would be an easy solution is creating a tool that takes all parts with a constant thickness of X and creates another assembly where the parts are assembled with the x value in the z axis. this allows me to create a drawing from the top, scaled 1:1 and export it as a dxf , giving me lines that are easy to work on further.
so far the apps offered in the app store require prior preparation of the assembly and often give files that are hard to work with.
possible additions would be:
Adding part name on or next to the parts. (single line fonts would allow parts to get engraved with a part number)
If a part is used more than once, the parts show up in groups.
Separation by color so for example 18mm thick mdf can be separated from 18mm thick chipboard, by editing appearance before using the tool.
Minimum distance between parts after alignment.
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Comments
Check out this awesome custom feature created by someone in our community:
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/3910/auto-layout-feature
If you've never used a custom feature, see the "Start using custom features" section of this page:
https://www.onshape.com/featurescript
It doesn't have sorting by color or automatic addition of part names, but it will lay our your part studio by thickness and allow you to choose minimum distance.
unfortunately you have to use it in the part studio, meaning if you have duplicate parts in the assembly it will give you only one.
drawing or duplicating parts is a workaround but creates a cluttered screen and part list.
is there a way to use a feature script in an assembly?
You can't use FS in an Assy today, but I believe you'll get the result you need with this:-
(1) Do an "In Context Edit" in your assembly to create a new PS with all your parts seen ghosted.
(2) Perform a "Transform - Copy In Place" of the parts you're interested in.
(3) Run the FS as above.
Hope that works!
Cheers,
Owen S.
HWM-Water Ltd