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Same material across all configurations
rich_north
Member Posts: 14 PRO
As an exercise I'm creating a configurable fastener to which i'm tring to attach a material, finish and part number from a catalogue I use regularly.
- I have discovered that assiging a material only applies to that unique configuration. Of course I want all configurations to be the same material. Perhaps there's an order of operations here? ie I already had a few configurations before I tried to assign a material to the part.
- The configured properties tab is where i'm adding part numbers… is there a way to speed this up with excel? I already have tables with this info in but I don't seem to be able to use the copy/paste trick. Not sure I can face adding all the rows sperately M3 through to M30 😂
Here is the doc:
Thanks in advance!
Best Answers
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Kevin_Cowles
Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 73 
Hey Rich, there's a few workflows here that are a bit clunky, to be honest. But hopefully I can help a bit!
For the material → configurations, there is some order of operations in play. If you've already started assigning part numbers and other properties in the configured properties tab, you need to make sure that material is not included in that table. Then you should be able to apply a material to one config and have it apply to them all.
However, I actually prefer avoiding the Configured Properties table entirely, because then you can avoid the creation of all of those rows (that is daunting you right now). As such, I recommend using a custom feature like Part Name →
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f4d470584fdeef9603415532/v/7d0c0b30a8b73bbd6ed13b01/e/c2cde0fc0eb4a05cb0b32b5bAll of these approaces are on display in this Configured flange that I've worked on! Check it out, make a copy, its public! https://cad.onshape.com/documents/86eabd1f1f840f4b5682239d/w/3620e16509623f4881636bcf/e/800b491b58970f45f840fbd3
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Kevin_Cowles
Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 73
You could write a custom feature that reads the data as a csv! Claude Code or Codex could whip that out quite quickly.
But otherwise, you will need to CREATE those property line items, and then you can paste the data on top of it. In which case the Renaissance function might be extraordinarily helpful to generate all of those rows. But you can def cut and paste once its created (you just can't create new rows with a paste, which stinks). Configurations work this way, but configured properties don't sadly (yet!)
0
Answers
Hey Rich, there's a few workflows here that are a bit clunky, to be honest. But hopefully I can help a bit!
For the material → configurations, there is some order of operations in play. If you've already started assigning part numbers and other properties in the configured properties tab, you need to make sure that material is not included in that table. Then you should be able to apply a material to one config and have it apply to them all.
However, I actually prefer avoiding the Configured Properties table entirely, because then you can avoid the creation of all of those rows (that is daunting you right now). As such, I recommend using a custom feature like Part Name →
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f4d470584fdeef9603415532/v/7d0c0b30a8b73bbd6ed13b01/e/c2cde0fc0eb4a05cb0b32b5bAll of these approaces are on display in this Configured flange that I've worked on! Check it out, make a copy, its public! https://cad.onshape.com/documents/86eabd1f1f840f4b5682239d/w/3620e16509623f4881636bcf/e/800b491b58970f45f840fbd3
Oh also you could subscribe to Renaissance in the app store to generate all those configured properties! Great utility that's part of a larger bundle: https://cad.onshape.com/appstore/apps/Utilities/65cea8597fcbf752f335595b
Oh and if you want to set any other properties, this is a generic custom feature from Michael Pascoe that does just that: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/24731/set-property-new-custom-feature/p1
Thanks @Kevin_Cowles, very helpful. I can see the Part Name feature being useful in this instance to generate a descriptive name that is recognisable in the BOM.
However, because I am using real world part numbers from a catalogue that I order from regularly, I am assuming there is no way round enetering all this data against the specific configs that require it. I was just hoping to be able to cut and paste from a spreadsheet I already have!
You could write a custom feature that reads the data as a csv! Claude Code or Codex could whip that out quite quickly.
But otherwise, you will need to CREATE those property line items, and then you can paste the data on top of it. In which case the Renaissance function might be extraordinarily helpful to generate all of those rows. But you can def cut and paste once its created (you just can't create new rows with a paste, which stinks). Configurations work this way, but configured properties don't sadly (yet!)