Is there an easier way to use mates for rigid parts in an assembly?

burhop

I've got several parts in an assembly that will be welded together.  So, in the assembly, I want them to move as one piece.

The parts were created in the same studio so are already in the right location. The fasten mate works in some cases but I have a lot of problems when Onshape doesn't find any common mate points.  I can go back and define them but that is work too.

I tried bring them into their own assembly, them marking them all as "fixed" then bringing in the sub-assembly.  However, the parts in the sub-assembly move around independent of each other.

Is there some other way to say "I want this part to stay fixed to this other part" without so much effort?

andrew_troup

In the meantime:

the easy way to do what you are trying to do, without needing to resort to an intermediate subassembly, is to insert the parts (if you want them all, you can speed things up by clicking on the Part Studio rather than individual parts when you get the Insert dialog up), then "OK" that, select those parts from the Parts list at left, and choose "Group" from the icon immediately to the right of the Mates portion of the toolbar.

Your parts will now all move as if they belonged to a common subassembly with "fixed" parts.

Obviously this is not useful for a subassembly which requires internal motion.

andrew_troup

Contrary to early-beta phase behaviour (judging by old posts in this forum), it seems that "Group" (see #) has been enhanced so that relative positions (see ##) update automatically in assemblies using "Group" in the way I describe above, if subsequent changes are made to the relativity of parts in the Studio.

The resulting workflow virtually eliminates the need to mate -- or position individually in an assembly -- parts whose relative positions are static. 

At the same time it manages to eliminate major problems with in-context design. 

This package of benefits is one of the first fruits of some truly GREAT conceptual underpinnings, and I reckon it has the potential to lift Onshape well above the current state of the art.

The latter relied not just on workflows which were sometimes laborious, but (importantly) on maintaining relationships between large numbers of heterogeneous files. These relationships were notoriously prone to disruption, and keeping them intact could require discipline which was not always forthcoming, especially in teams whose membership was fluid or collaborative.

# which it seems is not technically a 'Mate'

## Naturally enough, the shape and size of individual parts *always did* update in all assemblies, when changed in the Part Studio

3dcad

The only problem is if you create later more parts into that part studio, they don't automatically exist in assembly. The main problem is not the extra work in assembly (you only need to add the parts and group them) but the fact that you will have two different 'versions' to manage.

I would like to see such feature that if complete part studio is added to assembly, it would always be up-to-date with that certain part studio (maybe add checkbox for this). There is another thread for this and I'm still on testing phase on this, there was also some conversation if part studio and assembly could be just one.. tempting idea indeed..

andrew_troup

Can you make the model public and post a link here? The parts in your sub-assembly should not move independently once they are "fixed", but it's hard to know what the problem might be without investigating the model.

andrew_troup

In the meantime:

the easy way to do what you are trying to do, without needing to resort to an intermediate subassembly, is to insert the parts (if you want them all, you can speed things up by clicking on the Part Studio rather than individual parts when you get the Insert dialog up), then "OK" that, select those parts from the Parts list at left, and choose "Group" from the icon immediately to the right of the Mates portion of the toolbar.

Your parts will now all move as if they belonged to a common subassembly with "fixed" parts.

Obviously this is not useful for a subassembly which requires internal motion.

andrew_troup

Contrary to early-beta phase behaviour (judging by old posts in this forum), it seems that "Group" (see #) has been enhanced so that relative positions (see ##) update automatically in assemblies using "Group" in the way I describe above, if subsequent changes are made to the relativity of parts in the Studio.

The resulting workflow virtually eliminates the need to mate -- or position individually in an assembly -- parts whose relative positions are static. 

At the same time it manages to eliminate major problems with in-context design. 

This package of benefits is one of the first fruits of some truly GREAT conceptual underpinnings, and I reckon it has the potential to lift Onshape well above the current state of the art.

The latter relied not just on workflows which were sometimes laborious, but (importantly) on maintaining relationships between large numbers of heterogeneous files. These relationships were notoriously prone to disruption, and keeping them intact could require discipline which was not always forthcoming, especially in teams whose membership was fluid or collaborative.

# which it seems is not technically a 'Mate'

## Naturally enough, the shape and size of individual parts *always did* update in all assemblies, when changed in the Part Studio

3dcad

The only problem is if you create later more parts into that part studio, they don't automatically exist in assembly. The main problem is not the extra work in assembly (you only need to add the parts and group them) but the fact that you will have two different 'versions' to manage.

I would like to see such feature that if complete part studio is added to assembly, it would always be up-to-date with that certain part studio (maybe add checkbox for this). There is another thread for this and I'm still on testing phase on this, there was also some conversation if part studio and assembly could be just one.. tempting idea indeed..

raj_Onshape

@3dcad If you frequently find that all parts of a part studio need to be available everywhere when one of the occur. A easy workaround is to make a part studio PS1  and another assembly A1 which contains currents parts of PS1 and use A1 everywhere. This way when you add remove parts from PS1 you only have to update A1 and all other assemblies update automatically.

andrew_troup

ptrajkumar said:

@3dcad If you frequently find that all parts of a part studio need to be available everywhere when (that) one of the(m) occur(s): A(n) easy workaround is to make a part studio PS1  and another assembly A1 which contains currents parts of PS1 and use A1 everywhere. This way when you add remove parts from PS1 you only have to update A1 and all other assemblies update automatically.

Bravo - this sort of insight needs to go in a "Hints & Tips" file

burhop

@andrew_troup  @ptrajkumar  @3dcad  Excelent!!!  This will work, plus I learned a bit of extra knowledge!