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Features essential for aerospace structures are missing
jeff_peachman
Member Posts: 2 ✭
As a PhD student I have been evaluating OnShape for my lab, and I think it's great for university research use. However, my friend and I are thinking about making an aerospace startup. OnShape has some amazing features which are very valuable to a startup. The integrated PDM is the amazing compared to other systems, and possibility for collaboration is unmatched. However, unfortunately, I can't recommend it for an aerospace company in its present state.
For context, I have 12 years of experience with NX (before grad school), and NX gives you a lot of freedom when creating features that OnShape lacks. Take the following example. I want to create an isogrid panel on a conical surface. In production, I would machine triangles into a flat plate and then form that plate into a cone before welding. I would do this in NX by creating a conical surface, placing model curves on that surface, and creating surfaces normal to the cone using the Law Extension command. Then I can thicken those surfaces to create a floor and ribs.
I attempted to do this in OnShape using Ruled Surfaces, with the cone as a reference surface, and it refuses to do it. Apparently ruled surfaces must be from edges and not model curves in the middle of the face, which is extremely limiting. So, next I attempted to use model curves to split the face. This was also not supported… so, what is it that you expect me to do here? I need surfaces to split faces but I can't create the surfaces I need without split faces?
The outer profile of the part at right is a swept surface. It's possible to do it this way, but it's very cumbersome to create a profile for every single rib.
Am I doing something wrong here? Is there an easier way to do this that I'm missing? I took all the surface modeling and 3D curve tutorials. Does Onshape intend to add functionality to make this on par with systems like NX?
Other things that are missing:
- I can project sketch curves to faces. Why can I not project 3D curves onto other faces?
- NX allows me to extend a curve in a face. If I project a curve onto a face, I should be able to extend it as far as the edge of the face.
Comments
Unless I'm misunderstanding, all the things you are asking for are possible in Onshape. You have to pick the curve "edges" on the screen - it doesn't work if you are trying to pick them from the Curves list on the left.
Can't extend a curve on a face though.
@jeff_peachman
As you probably know, Onshape is based on the same kernel, Parasolid, as NX. In theory, anything that can be modeled in NX can be modeled in Onshape. Of course NX has decades more development and has many niche tools that Onshape doesn't. It also costs a lot more and takes an IT department to manage it. There are several aerospace companies using Onshape at the moment.
In a perfect world, I wish Onshape had more sophistication in some areas, but after 30 years of using Creo and Solidworks I refuse to use them again because Onshape solves certain pain points so much better:
@jeff_peachman :
I wasn't able to completely understand what you're trying to build (and how), but I was able to draft up a conical isogrid pattern in a few minutes.
apparently, there's custom feature called isogrid… (custom features of onshape are awesome and often fill in the few gaps that i felt were there from NX)
I've used NX for 11 years as well, but would hate to go back now, for reasons @S1mon detailed.
sometimes you just have to find the right way to get things done…
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/8d962e7b553bd4c5c3cbcdb8/w/a2abda4690d856374195b87b/e/c49c46b320825770ae8b0183
would not be able to do this with NX. wouldn't have the custom feature, and couldn't have as easily shared my file with you…
(what version of nx are you on etc.)