Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.
First time visiting? Here are some places to start:- Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
- Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
- Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
- 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.
question about documents manipulation/use
andrei_stoica
Member Posts: 10 ✭
hi, is there a way of importing/pasting a document inside another document?
actual/concrete situation: I have designed (and I am manufacturing) dog wheelchairs.
I have created a document containing the joining components for articulations etc. in order to create the drawings of those components (they would be printed to have as reference/reminders while I do the actual lathe/milling operations.
then, I've created another document containing the foam wheels (also manufactured by me) complete with bearings, hub, axles, rims, Seeger retainers etc.
now, I would like to build a complete 3d model (for the assembly/instructions manual) of the actual wheelchair. I cannot figure if there is a way of importing said components (articulations and wheels) into the actual 3d model (complete with pipe work, harnesses, buckles and so on).
is there another/simpler way of doing this other than copying and renaming the components document and using it to add the rest of the elements? the problem with this approach is that the document becomes quite hard to navigate/work, as the pipeworks, wheels, harnesses and so on adds a lot of elements (some parametric, some built "freehand")
thank you!
Best Answers
-
Dietrich_Joe
Member Posts: 18 PRO
I'm not sure if I fully understand the problem, but as long as everything exists within Onshape you should have no trouble putting it all together in an assembly. Make a new document, and the second tab in the bottom taskbar should already be an assembly (or in an existing document, press the "+" on the bottom left of the screen and select "Create Assembly" ). Here you can import all your parts and connect them together with mates that allow you to keep certain degrees of freedom. If you don't know anything about assemblies, definitely look at the Onshape learning center (learn.onshape.com) or help documentation (cad.onshape.com/help). Assemblies can also let you do things like making exploded views and showing/hiding parts, which could be useful in an instruction manual.
If you're only asking about importing tabs into another document, right click on the tab you want to move, clickexport"move to document", and then decide which document to put it in. If you're just using an assembly, this isn't necessary since assemblies can reference any part from any document without any copying or renaming. You can also import external files into a document by clicking the "+" in the bottom left and choosing import.If I'm still not understanding something please let me know!
0 -
Dietrich_Joe
Member Posts: 18 PRO
Ok I think I understand now. My mistake about recommending export earlier, I was thinking of the move to document function (corrected my first answer). In doc B, open the tab manager (alt + t) and use ctrl + click to multi-select all the tabs you want to work on, then right click and select move to document. Put doc A as the destination. This moves all your selected tabs into doc A with full functionality to edit and change. Once the tabs are all in the same document, you can combine the parts into an assembly in a new tab. Since the assembly is in the same document as the parts, it will automatically update with any changes made to the parts (as @nick_papageorge_dayjob said).
What you are doing with this method is moving the tabs into the same document before the assembly, and keeping the ability to freely edit all parts individually. I think you have the idea that the assembly is only the final step, but assemblies are made to evolve with your design. You can make the assembly as soon as you move all the parts to one document and it will instantly update with any small tweaks you make to the parts afterwards. You don't need to edit in context or anything, just edit as usual in the part studio and it Just Works™️ . As long as you have good mate practices (see learning center), you should rarely ever run into trouble with broken mates as you make changes to parts.
Basically, it sounds like Nick's method is actually what you're looking for.
0
Answers
I'm not sure if I fully understand the problem, but as long as everything exists within Onshape you should have no trouble putting it all together in an assembly. Make a new document, and the second tab in the bottom taskbar should already be an assembly (or in an existing document, press the "+" on the bottom left of the screen and select "Create Assembly" ). Here you can import all your parts and connect them together with mates that allow you to keep certain degrees of freedom. If you don't know anything about assemblies, definitely look at the Onshape learning center (learn.onshape.com) or help documentation (cad.onshape.com/help). Assemblies can also let you do things like making exploded views and showing/hiding parts, which could be useful in an instruction manual.
If you're only asking about importing tabs into another document, right click on the tab you want to move, click
export"move to document", and then decide which document to put it in. If you're just using an assembly, this isn't necessary since assemblies can reference any part from any document without any copying or renaming. You can also import external files into a document by clicking the "+" in the bottom left and choosing import.If I'm still not understanding something please let me know!
Hi, thanks for the exporting tabs idea, I'll try this approach. I was using assemblies, I know that you can insert components from different documents, however, the problems arise when I have to edit in place a component that was inserted from another document (B), as it would switch to that document, then I would have to reopen the (A) document/assembly and refresh etc. - I find the container approach of documents in OnShape to be a little confusing/cumbersome - I am not a CAD designer/user, by trade I am a DTP designer and 30 yrs of working inside Adobe (and many moons ago Macromedia/Quark etc.) shaped the way in which I am used to manage documents (linked files, opening files from within Illustrator/Indesign to edit in Photoshop and vice-versa) :)
If all the part studios and assemblies are in a single document, the assembly will update automatically whenever a part studio is changed. (unless you reference a version for a part in the assembly, which you are probably not doing). It sounds like that is what you are after, after reading both of your posts in this thread?
You can move all of the tabs from the 2 other docs into the main doc, as mentioned by Dietrich above. Note, make a dummy empty part studio tab before moving them. OS won't let you move all tabs, one must stay behind. That's the purpose of the new empty part studio.
so, the exporting tabs approach would not work for me - I need to retain editing capability of the part…
@nick_papageorge_dayjob : I absolutely understand what you are saying, but this isn't the case. what I am after is importing/adding a part from a document into another document, BEFORE assembly stage.
let's say I have document A (containing pipe works, articulations, wheels and so on - mechanical stuff). I also have an older document B (from a previous design iteration, containing the harnesses, support structure etc.).
if I create an assembly from the doc A (current work) and insert parts from the doc B, the problem arises when I need to edit in context some components from B - it will switch to document B for editing, then I need to reopen doc A assembly, update everything and so on - and it's a huge headache for me (given the fact that I am not trained in CAD whatsoever and I have to keep track of about 100 parts
maybe this helps better: this is the work in progress of doc A - https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0c444b6b4c31a02e4ed268d5/w/cb64090e7864873d5b6336ba/e/8c45e9526006b94f0c432d1f?renderMode=0&uiState=6a60d8533f72499cdc176682
and this is the older design iteration (doc B) from which I would like to extract/import the harness and support structure into doc A, while retaining full editing capabilities - I need to make some minor modifications of the harness, and to redo it from scratch is something I would like to avoid - https://cad.onshape.com/documents/9f5295e30e4c5e17c5cb84b8/w/73e49ba881060306b20b9249/e/9ad7065a600662f3cc6ce102?renderMode=0&uiState=6a60d90282a967ffa5cbd48b
Ok I think I understand now. My mistake about recommending export earlier, I was thinking of the move to document function (corrected my first answer). In doc B, open the tab manager (alt + t) and use ctrl + click to multi-select all the tabs you want to work on, then right click and select move to document. Put doc A as the destination. This moves all your selected tabs into doc A with full functionality to edit and change. Once the tabs are all in the same document, you can combine the parts into an assembly in a new tab. Since the assembly is in the same document as the parts, it will automatically update with any changes made to the parts (as @nick_papageorge_dayjob said).
What you are doing with this method is moving the tabs into the same document before the assembly, and keeping the ability to freely edit all parts individually. I think you have the idea that the assembly is only the final step, but assemblies are made to evolve with your design. You can make the assembly as soon as you move all the parts to one document and it will instantly update with any small tweaks you make to the parts afterwards. You don't need to edit in context or anything, just edit as usual in the part studio and it Just Works™️ . As long as you have good mate practices (see learning center), you should rarely ever run into trouble with broken mates as you make changes to parts.
Basically, it sounds like Nick's method is actually what you're looking for.
thank you all, and very much so!
it starts to make sense to me somehow, and I think that this may be the workaround that I was searching for.
however, I might come back with another set of annoying questions! once again, thank you all very much.
thanks a lot, this was the solution - I have moved the relevant tab to my current document and the puzzle starts to make sense - assembly using both the work in progress part studio and the moved one for the previous document, editing in context will be right there and so on :)
thank you all, very much!
When you say "editing in context" are you referring in a general sense? Or in an Onshape Specific vocabulary. "Edit in context" has a specific meaning in OS. I didn't see any (OS specific) assembly contexts in your part studios.
hi Nick! about "editing in context", I was referring both in general sense and in OnShape specific vocabulary - all is good now, I've started the assembly process of my new design iteration, moved relevant tabs in my current document, and happily recycling older components by editing them in the context of the current assembly :) https://cad.onshape.com/documents/09abb1280450f5bcf6f82b8e/w/f2e28b5204b6edb270e657c6/e/89e5e1e7435b3517defe9f6a?renderMode=0&uiState=6a6313b02779e769e344b4ed
again, thank you all for your time, you were very helpful!