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Adding front-plane holes on sheet metal part made from sketch on different plane
drew_andre
Member Posts: 2 ✭
Hi -- as someone with little CAD experience, I've found onshape to be extremely intuitive so far! I feel as though every tool and concept has been documented, but I'm still struggling to understand the proper workflow for creating a sheet metal part, and it's starting to show as I try to add holes to a simple part.
I'm looking to build an aluminum channel for holding leds like this: http://bit.ly/2FesbEX. It will have several holes on the side so that I can snap a custom-made acrylic cover on.
I've approached this from a few different angles:
1) Draw a U-shaped sketch on one plane and extrude it 36".
2) Draw a 36"x1" sketch and use the shell tool
The issue is that both of these parts were made from one sketch on one plane. As soon as I go onto a different plane to draw holes or whatever else it may be, I have no reference points to sketches on different planes.
So, I've been now trying to sketch out the entire part using all three planes. That way, when I go to convert a sketch on a single plane to a sheet metal part, I still have sketches on the other plane to reference the holes.
I'm not sure if this is a good workflow. 80% of the part I'm looking to make could be made from converting one sketch on one plane, so is that the route I should take? Even though that covers most of my build, I still don't have sketches for other faces of my part so it seems like a cheap and fast way to get the job done...
Like I said, I've been trying to sketch every face of my product and just thicken faces from there. That's where I'm running into issues.
I drew the 36"x1" rectangle on the bottom plane, but when I go to sketch a side face on the right plane, I'm unable to reference any points from the sketch on the bottom plane. Ideally, I would be able to start a right-plane rectangle from one corner point of the bottom-plane rectangle, but nothing snaps. I tried adding points to each of those corners, but those are also not accessible as constraints when drawing on the right plane. The only point that registers is the origin.
Does my workflow sound okay? Should I really be creating my (pretty simple) sheet metal part from only one plane? Or would one typically sketch the entire part out on every plane?
Thank you!
I'm looking to build an aluminum channel for holding leds like this: http://bit.ly/2FesbEX. It will have several holes on the side so that I can snap a custom-made acrylic cover on.
I've approached this from a few different angles:
1) Draw a U-shaped sketch on one plane and extrude it 36".
2) Draw a 36"x1" sketch and use the shell tool
The issue is that both of these parts were made from one sketch on one plane. As soon as I go onto a different plane to draw holes or whatever else it may be, I have no reference points to sketches on different planes.
So, I've been now trying to sketch out the entire part using all three planes. That way, when I go to convert a sketch on a single plane to a sheet metal part, I still have sketches on the other plane to reference the holes.
I'm not sure if this is a good workflow. 80% of the part I'm looking to make could be made from converting one sketch on one plane, so is that the route I should take? Even though that covers most of my build, I still don't have sketches for other faces of my part so it seems like a cheap and fast way to get the job done...
Like I said, I've been trying to sketch every face of my product and just thicken faces from there. That's where I'm running into issues.
I drew the 36"x1" rectangle on the bottom plane, but when I go to sketch a side face on the right plane, I'm unable to reference any points from the sketch on the bottom plane. Ideally, I would be able to start a right-plane rectangle from one corner point of the bottom-plane rectangle, but nothing snaps. I tried adding points to each of those corners, but those are also not accessible as constraints when drawing on the right plane. The only point that registers is the origin.
Does my workflow sound okay? Should I really be creating my (pretty simple) sheet metal part from only one plane? Or would one typically sketch the entire part out on every plane?
Thank you!
0
Answers
To bring existing geometry from the part studio into a sketch, you can use the "Use" sketch tool:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/sketch-tools-use.htm
First click the "Use" icon, then click the point or edge you want to bring into the sketch. you can then reference the projected sketch geometry!