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New to CAD, Help Please..
dale_burton
Member Posts: 5 ✭
in Drawings
Hi,
I’m new to CAD, well, im entirely computer illiterate to be honest. I’m an engineer of sorts, ‘hands on’ type, not into computers and to old to have learnt it at school..
I’m using the Onshape iPad App, Iv managed to draw a cylinder and the through hole and counterbore I wanted, but I can not workout how to set the diameter of the cylinder?
Im also having trouble working out how to select stuff, ie. when making a Hole, i select to make a hole and the drop box says I havnt selected where to put the hole, I then can’t workout how to select the location. The holes I have managed to make have almost been by accident, I can’t seem to do the same thing as before.
Iv looked for tutorials on getting started with cad, but they all presume you know the basics. Can anyone point me towards a good tutorial for a ‘first day’ student?
Kind regards
MrD
I’m new to CAD, well, im entirely computer illiterate to be honest. I’m an engineer of sorts, ‘hands on’ type, not into computers and to old to have learnt it at school..
I’m using the Onshape iPad App, Iv managed to draw a cylinder and the through hole and counterbore I wanted, but I can not workout how to set the diameter of the cylinder?
Im also having trouble working out how to select stuff, ie. when making a Hole, i select to make a hole and the drop box says I havnt selected where to put the hole, I then can’t workout how to select the location. The holes I have managed to make have almost been by accident, I can’t seem to do the same thing as before.
Iv looked for tutorials on getting started with cad, but they all presume you know the basics. Can anyone point me towards a good tutorial for a ‘first day’ student?
Kind regards
MrD
0
Best Answers
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Jake_Rosenfeld
Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646 
Hi @dale_burton
Have you tried the "Fundamentals" pathway on our learning center? It goes step-by-step in teaching CAD, and tries to leave any assumptions of CAD knowledge at the door:
https://learn.onshape.com/collections/onshape-fundamentals-cad
As for your specific questions:
Onshape is a parametric CAD system. This means that each of the features in your feature list is built in order, and later features depend on the earlier features. To change the diameter of your cylinder, rather than applying some additional operation, you should edit the original sketch that the cylinder came from, and apply specific dimensions with the dimension tool:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/sketch-tools-dimension.htm
On the mobile app, you can show the feature list by clicking on the icon on the left side that looks like a rectangle with horizontal lines on it. Then you'll want to click the "..." button next to the sketch in question and then click on "Edit".
The hole feature takes sketch points as its selection. To create holes, you'll have to first start a sketch and place points where you want your holes to originate (you can be exact about their placement by using the dimension tool, as above). Once you're happy with your points, you can finish your sketch by clicking the green check mark, and then click the Hole button to start a hole feature, and click on the points you placed to make holes under them. Here is some help documentation:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/sketch-tools-point.htm
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/hole.htm
Hope this helps!Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team6 -
diane
Onshape Employees Posts: 2
Hi @dale_burton -- You can also access the mobile app-specific help: once you are signed in to your Onshape account, touch the question mark icon in the top right corner. Select "Help" from the menu. Once the Help opens, touch the icon in the top-left corner to open the Table of Contents. Tap the "Mobile Interface" topic to get specific information on selecting objects using a mobile interface.
To quit out of the Help and return to Onshape, tap the white X in the top right corner of the screen.
Hope this helps!
Diane AmadeoDiane Amadeo - QA Team6
Answers
Have you tried the "Fundamentals" pathway on our learning center? It goes step-by-step in teaching CAD, and tries to leave any assumptions of CAD knowledge at the door:
https://learn.onshape.com/collections/onshape-fundamentals-cad
As for your specific questions:
Onshape is a parametric CAD system. This means that each of the features in your feature list is built in order, and later features depend on the earlier features. To change the diameter of your cylinder, rather than applying some additional operation, you should edit the original sketch that the cylinder came from, and apply specific dimensions with the dimension tool:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/sketch-tools-dimension.htm
On the mobile app, you can show the feature list by clicking on the icon on the left side that looks like a rectangle with horizontal lines on it. Then you'll want to click the "..." button next to the sketch in question and then click on "Edit".
The hole feature takes sketch points as its selection. To create holes, you'll have to first start a sketch and place points where you want your holes to originate (you can be exact about their placement by using the dimension tool, as above). Once you're happy with your points, you can finish your sketch by clicking the green check mark, and then click the Hole button to start a hole feature, and click on the points you placed to make holes under them. Here is some help documentation:
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/sketch-tools-point.htm
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/hole.htm
Hope this helps!
To quit out of the Help and return to Onshape, tap the white X in the top right corner of the screen.
Hope this helps!
Diane Amadeo
I will indeed take a good look at the Fundamentals. Leaning this stuff is extremely daunting but it’s quite addictive when you see the thing coming to life.
Thank you for the help, and thank you for making this fantastic program free.
Kind regards
MrD
I’m now getting on quite well with the few bits im designing, one thing im currently struggling with is putting a Thread onto an Extrusion, I want to make it an M6 thread. I have tried the Helix tool but I was hoping to have preset threads rather than entering values which I don’t know. Any pointers?
Kind regards
MrD
Kind regards