knitting surfaces

Edward_Goodwin

I'm hoping this is a stupid question but as I can't seem to find the answer I thought I'd ask...

Within SW I'm used to jumping between solid- and surface-modelling depending on what's needed. I've been using Onshape to make some complex surfaces and now need to knit the surfaces together. At a later point I'll also need to knit and form solid. What is the process for this in Onshape? I can't seem to find it in the help files. 

Jake_Rosenfeld

Hi @Edward_Goodwin

When using surfacing features such as "Fill" you can use the "Add" instead of "New" option to knit surfaces together as you model.
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/fill.htm

Once you have a set of surfaces that you want to transform into a solid, you can use the "Enclose" feature.
https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/enclose.htm

anton_kalisiak

I think a review of nomenclature within the menu/icons would be helpful to make all available abilities more intuitive.

MBartlett21

@anton_kalisiak
@Edward_Goodwin
You can use my FeatureScript here to join surfaces.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/84d939daceef6a928b8abcba/w/9e0dafb21fbe2ec8b983bbdc/e/3f830335f32af139a2f26b8f

anton_kalisiak

MBartlett21 said:

@anton_kalisiak
@Edward_Goodwin
You can use my FeatureScript here to join surfaces.
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/84d939daceef6a928b8abcba/w/9e0dafb21fbe2ec8b983bbdc/e/3f830335f32af139a2f26b8f

You're the best, the tool you made worked great.  The client i have uses this software professionally and this program has just been a pain.

billy2

@Edward_Goodwin

I use @MBartlett21 script all the time. I highly recommend it. I use a lot of his stuff.

I do a lot surfacing inside OS and I'll tell you that's it's different than SW. 

Honestly, you had to learn surfacing in solidworks because the documentation over there wasn't very good either. This is a great forum with a lot of people that'll help you out. Maybe we can get an area dedicated to a surfacing category on this forum to aggregate all the surfacing ideas.

One of the main differences between OS & SW is feature script. If you come up with something that you need, with feature script, there's plenty of people here that'll make it. @MBartlett21 is one of those guys. He's got a lot of scripts that I use.

The other thing to note. At first, to me, I was frustrated that I had to use 2 commands in OS vs. the 1 command approach that SW provided. But I've learned to get over this and it's easier to debug when it's in 2 commands.

Let's talk about surface trim: split face & delete face. Why do I have to do them both? Why can't OS combine them into 1 command and call them trim? My point, it's all there, it's just not organized the same as SW. Why haven't I combined split face & delete face into 1 command using feature script? Because I've gotten use to it. The other day I performed a mutual trim by slicing up a bunch of surfaces and deleting the faces I didn't want. If you have 2 commands, mutual trims is a lot easier to explain, control & work with. Have you ever tried to explain how a mutual trim works in SW?

Now, after several projects, I don't want to combine split face & delete face into trim.

Like the curvey 101 guy use to say, the best way to learn surfaces is a cup of coffee and a Saturday morning.

romeograham

Not to mention @billy2 that the selections / directions in Mutual Trim in SW would "invert" every now and again, for no reason...