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What types of custom libraries exist in 2025?
Corvin
Member Posts: 5 PRO
I've been struggling to find good information about custom libraries, because it appears OnShape has been using the "custom library" terminology for years to refer to recommended document organization schemes (putting shared hardware together in a document and calling it a "library", etc.). Now we have things like frame profile libraries, which are their own unique thing, but I can't seem to find a good list of what kinds of other "real" libraries are available. I'm fairly certain there are sheet metal form libraries, custom material libraries, and drawing template libraries, but otherwise I'm still pretty lost— especially concerning any parts/hardware libraries that might be possible. Mostly I'm just encountering older documentation recommending organizational schemes using the standard OnShape Folders/Documents, so although I initially thought custom parts libraries existed, I'm starting to think that that only ever meant you could put parts into a Document and then link them to assemblies using the normal workflow. I want to make use of as many data management options as I can, but it feels hard to be sure I've looked at every tool available.
Answers
@among us I had the same confusion at first. From what I’ve seen, the term “custom library” in Onshape usually just means organizing reusable parts in documents/folders — not an actual built-in library. The exceptions are things like frame profiles, materials, and templates, which have more structured tools. What worked for me was creating a dedicated “hardware” document and just linking parts when needed — not fancy, but it keeps everything consistent.
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@Corvin You pretty much summed it up. The frame library uses folders and documents, but Onshape recognizes those and turns them into a library when you set it to your frame library, so you can quickly access these frame libraries in dynamic drop down menus.
There are users that would like to be able to use this kind of workflow for other things not just frames. There is also the need to share libraries with others or make them public. I suspect Onshape is aware of this need, but it would be good to vote on the official improvement request:
Custom Library / Standard Content - Improvement Request
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/100376#Comment_100376…
Someone correct me if you have more / new info.
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@MichaelPascoe I don't know how much public comment has been made on it but I know the dev team at Onshape has been making recent changes to facilitate more types of library (and presumably sharing) in the future. For example the changes made to the tag feature to extend to forms libraries instead of being limited to just frame profiles. It sounds like the launch of this particular feature might be a little far off still based on @ilya_baran's response in my other thread about it in the Featurescript category.