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.

what are drawings for?

noah_saxeniannoah_saxenian Member Posts: 7 EDU
Hi, I'm new to onshape and I'm wondering what drawings are for. Are they for planning your design or for documenting it or what?
Thanks :smiley: 

Tagged:

Comments

  • Mitch_PricerMitch_Pricer OS Professional, Developers Posts: 27 PRO
    Drawings are meant for sending detailed reports of your design on to the shop team for manufacturing. Such as adding call-outs for something that has a specific type of threading that needs to be machined onto it, ect. They can be used for the actions you listed, but it is not their primary job.  :)
  • shashank_aaryashashank_aarya Member Posts: 265 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2016
    Drawings are mainly used for conveying the detailed manufacturing information to the shop people in such a way that everyone can easily understand. It contains every information such as dimensions, tolerance requirement, machining process, surface finish etc. in most simple manner which otherwise is very difficult to convey it without drawing.
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    Drawings are the standard way of printing the desing. There are global rules how information is expressed so that everybody speaks same language. They unite people who desing with 2d, 3d or even by pen&paper.

    This is why we still need them though 3d representations can be a great help.

    Probably within few generations 3d/4d models will replace the need for drawings, currently I don't see anyone even trying to come up with 3d model containing enough information for industrial manufacturing. 
    //rami
  • matthew_menardmatthew_menard Member Posts: 96 ✭✭✭
    3dcad said:
    ...
    Probably within few generations 3d/4d models will replace the need for drawings, currently I don't see anyone even trying to come up with 3d model containing enough information for industrial manufacturing. 
    Pretty sure the ASME Y14.41 standard covers 3d representation of models.  There may also be an ISO standard, but it is unfamiliar to me.

    Solidworks keeps spamming me emails about their Model Based Definition (MBD) package, even though the place I work will adopt it about a decade after the rest of the world does.  It looks promising, but I see a lot of hand wringing about ditching drawings before it becomes an industry standard.  I'm actually a little surprised there isn't an MBD plugin in the OnShape App Store.  Here's a few links for anybody interested.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-based_definition
    http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/technical-communication/solidworks-mbd.htm
    http://www.capvidia.com/capvidia-products/mbdvidia-ptc-creo-qif-metrology
    http://www.advanceddimensionalmanagement.com/pmi-mbd-3d-gdt-digital-data-3d-solid-models-as-design-deliverables/#limited_dimension_drawing

    I'm not associated with any of these sites, but they all give a few example images of models with MBD annotations for anybody who hasn't seen them.  It will be interesting to see how this technology gets worked into the design process of the future. 

  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    @matthew_menard
    Thanks for the links to prove my point. MBD / PMI is in early stage and it needs loads of development to compete with even say 10mm pile of A4 sheets. I'm glad they create nice videos of simple bracket having information all over - everything needs to begin with something..

    Step ap 242 sounds interesting, but files will probably not define the future. Something like Onshape + Google + Apple working together might be able to come up with a solution of true drawings replacement.
    It needs to be something familiar, something hyper innovative, working with any device and stay as far from pdfs as possible =)

    Maybe we need to start discussion on 'how to make Onshape MBD / PMI awesome' - I'll leave this up to Onshape to begin when they feel ready for that.. 
    //rami
  • billy2billy2 Member, OS Professional, Mentor, Developers, User Group Leader Posts: 2,014 PRO
    3dcad I'm ready, let's do it
  • petr_svobodapetr_svoboda OS Professional Posts: 8 PRO
    Roll out PMI /MBD, please. 
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    @petr_svoboda
    Create improvement request ticket using feedback in cad, that way request gets higher value - mine is already in ;)
    //rami
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    +1 to PMI/MBD

    It's the best part of solidworks (even tho solidworks is a buggy piece of garbage) that level of detail in the model (while you're thinking about that feature) just pops into drawing automagically. Saves a lot of questions when handing off your model to a detailer to make up some drawings.

  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    edited April 2017
    Posted on wrong page ignore this post :(
Sign In or Register to comment.