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Is there a way to actually fix the dreaded "some external references are missing"?
vladimir_shapranov
Member Posts: 9 ✭
Hello,
So, yet again I dared to rearrange some things in a part and got punished for it.
Is there some way to actually fix those references, something similar to deleting and re-adding a "missing blah of blah" you get in non-sketch operations? Or at least something one can do to avoid it (other than "never use project/intersect" and/or "don't touch anything before a dependent sketch")?
I see that the usual "solution" proposed everywhere is to just delete everything and do over. The problem with it is that then the next step breaks, then you have another sketch that breaks in the same way, and you end up basically redoing the part from this point.
Answers
so least bad 'solution' is not to redraw the sketch, but only to delete the red references and redo those. then the edges and faces will keep their internal id and so will the downstream geometry.
You can try the repair manager's feature recently introduced, but I haven't experienced it myself yet and don't know how it works with sketches…
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/27548/improvements-to-onshape-april-25th-2025
You mean delete the actual elements? Wouldn't this potentially change order of things and cause breakages down the line?
I found one way around in the meantime, the "coincident" constraint seems to work with entities outside the sketch. So, I deleted only the constraints and added new "coincident" ones instead. Seems to work. Not sure if it will always work though.
Do your best not to delete from previous features like sketches. Instead move objects around as needed. That will allow continuity feature IDs. This wont catch all but should catch most. Follow with Vladimir's suggestion to catch more. Sometime the change is enough that none of this helps.
"So, I deleted only the constraints and added new "coincident" ones instead. Seems to work."
that's what i meant to advise. glad to hear it's working.
You can try selecting all affected entities, right clicking and clicking "transform sketch entities". If you move them slightly now, all external references will disappear and you can start re-constraining everything
Also I would suggest getting familiar with the constraint manager as it can really help troubleshoot things, find external constraints etc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRSPzw0SqNo