Click and Drag

tj_thorniley

I can't believe I have to ask this, but how do you move an object from one location to another?

I have a 3D object, and its in an awkward position on the grid. I want to move it to a more comfortable spot but the bloody thing won't cooperate.

Please don't tell me it's stuck there.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@tj_thorniley

If you use the "Translate by XYZ" option of the Transform feature, you'll get drag handles that allow you to free drag your object.  This works for desktop and mobile.

owen_sparks

Have a look at the transform function.
OwS

tj_thorniley

Jake_Rosenfeld

@tj_thorniley

Your entity selection seems fine, the issue is probably with your selections of how to transform the object.  What transformation type are you using? If you are using translate by line, you should pick one line or two points to translate along.

tj_thorniley

I don't know, I think I tried every variation available. I really just want to drag the whole object from one spot to another. This is about as basic as it gets. It really should be as simple as click and drag.

If you're a developer, feel free to contact me if you want some help making the interface more intuitive. That's what it needs more than anything.

owen_sparks

tj_thorniley said:I really just want to drag the whole object from one spot to another. This is about as basic as it gets. It really should be as simple as click and drag.

I'm sorry but I disagree with this.  In engineering CAD we want to be precise.  Click and drag is anything but.  We're also trying to manipulate a 3D part in 3D space by moving a pointer in 2D... 

Sure we could have a triad and drag in xyz, but what if that isn't the desired direction? 

The current translate options already do so much more than that.  The translate by mate connectors is fantastically useful and requires no math(s) at all for complex manipulations.  Translate by points similarly so.  If we really want to move by xyz that's there too.

Offered in the spirit of healthy debate,

Owen S.

tj_thorniley

It's a basic feature from a user's perspective. You've highlighted some problems to be solved from a software developers perspective. To make the most effective product, I expect you'll need to be mindful of each. Is it a simple concept? Yes. Will it be a challenge to implement? Probably. Some obvious solutions (ideas, at least) come to mind. If you'd be happy to bare with me, I'd be happy to guide you.

Other than that, it's hard to understand the other options you mentioned without some sort of visual cues. Maybe you could throw up some screenshots, or short video clips.

owen_sparks

Hokay, I'm at work so no time for making videos, but here is a quick pictoral example of 2 of the many transform methods.  They're pretty well documented in the help files.

So say we have your lens and now want to mount a pair of them onto a microscope body, in the 2 points highlighted here:-

Now we don't know exactly how much to move them by or to rotate them by.  And anyway this distance might change if we modify the design.  So instead I've created 2 mate connectors (think of them as local coordinate systems).  One on the lens, one on the body.

We can now carry out a transform between mate connectors to put the lens into place:-

To highlight a different method we'll now fit the 2nd lens in a different manner.  We already have the point on the sketch where we want the centre of the lens, so just transform between them. We don't want to move the first one so I've checked the copy box.


I've added this into the previous doc I created for you should you wish to follow along.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/b6a887c3cdcfbf681b9c9373/w/f16831af92b9443420026b87/e/2b158c9b00f1666108d2bff7

BTW I believe the 6 Axis drag functionality you describe is already in the "assembly" mode rather than the part studio mode.  There are also a bunch of snap together mate functions which are really cool.

Hope that helps,

Owen S.

bruce_williams

@tj_thorniley
@owen_sparks has a great explanation of both the precision placement in part studio and mentions you CAN do the click and drag in assembly.   It looks like you are working in mobile app.  If you have not, give the browser a go on computer.  There you will find full function and a lot easier to figure the software out.   Mobile is amazing but it is limited by the size of screen and no mouse.

tj_thorniley

@bruce_williams I built the original on my laptop, I'm just using the Android app while I'm away from the computer.

@owen_sparks Nice pictorial. Much easier to understand. Thanks. Can this technique be used to move the 3D object (or 2D sketch) (lens, in this case) to some arbitrary location in empty space? Like, instead of putting it onto the platform, what I'm trying to do is more like.. Keeping it next to the platform but moving it an inch closer, or further away.

Actually the object is too far away from the center of the document, where the planes intersect.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@tj_thorniley

If you use the "Translate by XYZ" option of the Transform feature, you'll get drag handles that allow you to free drag your object.  This works for desktop and mobile.

tj_thorniley

Okay, that looked like it was the answer. But I tried it and the object converted to a grey cylinder. I tried to revert to an earlier version via the history menu, and it's the same all the way back. So it looks like I've lost my work. I'm out of patience, I don't know how anyone gets anything done here.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@tj_thorniley

We're sorry your frustrated, don't give up! We're here to help!

If you go on the desktop version and post a link to the document here we can help figure out what happened.

A couple ideas:
If your "Transform" feature is before the features you used to shape the lens, then when you go to edit the feature it will look how it did at that point in the history.  Once you commit the new changes to transform, the subsequent features will be recalculated and your part will go back to looking how it did with those future features.

Additionally, every change you make to a document is stored in the document's history, nothing you do in a document is ever ever ever lost.  When you mention history, do you mean the Feature List or the Document History?
https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/tech-tip-how-to-easily-restore-a-document-in-onshape

owen_sparks

Well put Jake. I've been using OS for 18 months and I don't believe you guys have lost as much as a mouse click in my docs.  I can't say that of any other file system I've used.

tj_thorniley

Thanks @Jake_Rosenfeld. I'll try to get you the link. Although the title is Nikon Objective. It's a public document. Maybe that's enough for you to find it. There's two parts. One is a gold/brown outer shell. The other was a lens element. Now it's a grey cylinder. 

Here it is: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/aa47d0c5025c5bb0152dbc24/w/d8721353c80538ea7a8136b8/e/9f9ebca7c47b434916ddeaa1

When you see the outer shell, you'll probably understand why my workflow consists of multiple stacked sketches, extrudes & chamfers, etc. Rather than drawing it all in one go.

Oh yeah, and I was talking about the Document History. I think. It looks like this.

ilya_baran

@tj_thorniley
The document has multiple part studios -- my guess is the problem is that that wasn't clear.  One is a grey cylinder, while another is yellow and has more work -- here's a direct link: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/aa47d0c5025c5bb0152dbc24/w/d8721353c80538ea7a8136b8/m/d636ddf3bcf252c223ba45c7/e/601c29a3494567ce3585a162
You can see the tabs at the bottom of the screen labeled "Part Studio 1", "Part Studio 2" etc. and switch between them.

tj_thorniley

@ilya_baran You're right. That's weird, I didn't realize that was there and it swapped to that automatically. Thanks for pointing it out. I deleted it.

NeilCooke

Hi @tj_thorniley - I may be stating the obvious here so forgive me if I am. The position of parts in a part studio only matter if they are related, e.g. you are creating a lens holder around your lens. If you are creating an assembly, you should do it in the assembly environment and not in a Part Studio - in an assembly you can drag parts around to your heart's content.

tj_thorniley

@NeilCooke Yep. I just wanted to move the individual parts. Usually just to get them centered or in line with a plane or axis. Sometimes they just get stuck in an uncomfortable spot.