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Making parts behave like solids in an assembly

duncan_thomasduncan_thomas Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
edited June 2017 in Community Support
Hi

My biggest frustration when using assemblies to think about how a thing goes together (which is my main use currently) is an inability to say 'these parts are solid and should never be allowed to pass through each other'. Am I missing something or is that not a feature? I can use mates and relationships, but it's limited and clunky.

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    john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,898 PRO
    edited June 2017
    onshape mates are pretty nice actually..

    i havent seen a cad software that has collision detection built into the mating system. usually you would need to do a assembly analysis when your finished to check for crashes.

    but to be honest sometimes we want parts to crash or intersect. for instance with fasteners and tapped holes. or when you want too see how much meat you need to trim off of a part. having  no collision helps more than you may think from first glance. And by being more specific with mate definitions it can help your understanding of the model a little more.

    at first onshape's mates seem weird. but give it a chance. it is miles ahead of what our company currently uses, while only needing 1/3 of the mates (or fewer)
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    duncan_thomasduncan_thomas Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
    I'm not saying what's there is bad, just what would be useful to me to make my life easier. Totally happy with it being optional for those who need objects that can intersect. I'm listing a feature that would definitely save me, personally, on my application, substantial time and complexity. Onshape prides itself on innovation; they're only going to be able to continue to do that if people make suggestions of what would help them, rather than defending the status quo. The Onshape have given the industry status quo a good kick in the teeth already, but that's absolutely no reason to settle!


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    duncan_thomasduncan_thomas Member Posts: 9 ✭✭
    Hi Duncan!

    There is an improvement request for this! https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/25662#Comment_25662

    Please vote on the request to help us prioritize our work, and to receive updates about the status of this feature.
    Done, thanks!
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    philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @duncan_thomas - Adding to the already good info that others have given here, i would point out that not only do people love the high level mates, but that with the ability to add limits to the degrees of freedom, you can stop parts colliding. When we were all at SolidWorks, we added 'Physical Dynamics' and 'Collision Detection' and very few people ever used it! I am not saying that you don't want it, simply that Pro users didn't need it. We are more than happy to help you with whatever workflow you are trying to achieve.
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
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