Home› Using Onshape

Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.

First time visiting? Here are some places to start:
  1. Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
  2. Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
  3. Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
  4. Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.

If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.

Can this have been done any better?

daniel_rodríguez_riverodaniel_rodríguez_rivero Member Posts: 5 ✭
in Using Onshape

Hello, I'm just learning OnShape (and CAD in general) for being able to make some products for my home using 3D printing.

I always have the doubt if something has been done in the right way or if it could have been done any better. The one I want to ask about today is an example:

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/33c8aed9e1055013b6e20ed0/w/23ab65a8e7004394825161cf/e/f68549664f93592660e72dc4?renderMode=0&uiState=69403339f4491fec5fc7c290

This piece required two reference pictures, so in order to prevent having the area too messy, I divided it into two separate Part Studios. That is my first doubt. Was this the right decission? The final piece needed to be a union of both pieces. However, putting it all together was very easy making use of Derived so this is not that much of a problem.

The main doubt is about how I fused both pieces. Of course, the base is a Boolean union, but then I'm not sure if I made the "plate" that joins both pieces in the right way.

I made a projection of both shapes in a new sketch, traced some lines between them and then I extruded that. Then to make the window of the second piece I have to do a cut extrusion.

Finally, I wanted to fuse the pieces a bit better, so I used face blend, not sure if it is the right tool for the job.

Here is a screenshot in case someone wants to see it without entering the drawing

Screenshot 2025-12-15 at 11.59.10.png
Tagged:

Comments

  • nick_papageorge_dayjobnick_papageorge_dayjob Member, csevp Posts: 1,035 PRO

    I only skimmed through the model, my thoughts…

    -It's one piece of plastic when finished, so it would be best to model it all in one part studio. It wouldn't have been too messy, and you can hide the sketch that has the pictures to keep the screen non-cluttered.

    -You didn't take advantage of symmetry and the default planes, and drew it at some random place. The origin should be at the middle of the big square.

    -You don't need to assign a variable to everything unless you intend to make configurations. If this was a one-off design, just put the dimension in the sketch.

    -Some of the rounds end it a knife edge. Was that intentional? That usually is not good for any manufacturing process, including printing.

  • daniel_rodríguez_riverodaniel_rodríguez_rivero Member Posts: 5 ✭
    • It's not because I was afraid of the screen being cluttered, but my inability to put things at enough distance to be able to use them without interfering each other. I'll put them all in a single studio next time and see how it goes

    Q: You didn't take advantage of symmetry and the default planes, and drew it at some random place. The origin should be at the middle of the big square.

    • It is not exactly random 😅, or at least it was not intentional. I put the bottom left corner of the picture at the center of the plane, then scaled it and it went nuts, then build the piece on top, and what you see is the weird place result. About symmetry, that is because I was using a picture as reference, so I just tried to make the design match the picture, but at the end I used it only for the corners. How would you apply simetry to this design? Just one axis or two? To what features?
    • About variables, I always like to make adjustments and versions for a perfect fit and I don't want to have to hunt those variables later, so I put them upfront

    Thank you for taking a look at it!

  • glen_dewsburyglen_dewsbury Member Posts: 1,223 PRO

    Use Nicks suggestions and I have some more for you. With the available info in the pictures I would not import them. The info can be measured off the parts quite cleanly. Up to you but I wouldn't stretch into 2 part studios. Sweeps to get the initial shape will works well. Any symmetry that can be made use of is good. Myself I always pic something symmetric about the origin if I can. Save any fillets/chamfers to near the end of the feature tree and avoid using in sketches. Much simpler to update/correct later. If you continue with multiple part studios create a variable studio so all variables are available to all studios. With a little more time you could probably use less fillets and chamfers than I did.

    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/a1f3d3754ffd0cc424c92c8d/w/0b5d53d60b2833cf7415f282/e/a0ff5479790e1720f997a97f

    image.png
Sign In or Register to comment.

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Sign In

Categories

Vanilla Forums