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Turning on part planes in an assemly

_4271
_4271 Member Posts: 1 ✭
in Community Support
Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way, but I'd like to use an existing plane in a part to create a section view within an assembly. Ideally I'd like to turn on a parts plane in assemly studio, so that I can select it to use as a viewing section. Does that make sense? I know it's often not a problem and you can drag and rotate from planar faces. But sometimes a lot of work has gone into creating a plane in an organic shape and it would be great to just pick that plane to section the assembly.

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Answers

  • stanneedle
    stanneedle Member Posts: 2 ✭
    Inserting a surface seems to be no longer an option.   I have only revolved parts, and the mates only show planes that are perpendicular to my central axis.  I can't seem to make a section view along the axis.
  • Isoworks
    Isoworks Member Posts: 22 PRO
    Well this doesn't seem to work there is no "third choice" in the insert area - parts or sketches. 

    Frustrated.
  • paul_chastell
    paul_chastell Onshape Employees Posts: 133 image
    From that I infer that your document doesn't have any surfaces in it. If you share a link to your document someone may be able to offer more specific advice. Note that the default planes are not surfaces.

    For example, here is what I see when I only have parts (no filters):



    Here is what I see if I have both solids and surfaces (the filters appear):



    And if I go to all surfaces then the filter again disappears. 



    And here's an assembly with a surface inserted:




    Paul Chastell
    TVP, Onshape Labs
  • Jake_Rosenfeld
    Jake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646 image
    Dropping in here because no one has mentioned how to actually make these surfaces in the Part Studio.

    The easiest way to make a surface representing any plane in your part studio is to make a rectangular sketch on the plane in question and then do an "Offset surface" of that sketch rectangle with an Offset value of 0.

    https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/offset_surface.htm
    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
  • mahir
    mahir Member, Developers Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2018
    And if all you have is a plane with no solid/surface geometry to Offset, use that plane to create a dummy sketch that can be imported to the assembly. That sketch can be used to create a section. A surface will work, too, but AFAIK there is no way to directly create a surface on a plane that is simpler than just creating a single sketch. 

  • mlaflecheCAD
    mlaflecheCAD Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 210 image
    edited March 2018
    Dropping in on two more options that I like using: 

    Mate Connectors come in from the part studios which make snapping parts together really easy.  https://learn.onshape.com/learn/article/advanced-mating-techniques

    Also inserting sketches from the part studio is really a useful technique for layout modeling as Mahir mentions .  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rvu9763-2I4 
    Regards,
    Mike LaFleche   @mlaflecheCAD

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