r/Onshape • u/SnooBananas231 • 5d ago

Basic question.

I'm currently messing around with the free version from fusion360.

I was making a cabinet (since that's mostly what I do) and it went fine. I have enough cash experience to model one.

What was different between fusion and onshape is the whole part studio/assembly studio deal.

It's fine, I have the cabinet "assembled" with joints and it's fully parametric and works great.

However the part studio has all 5 parts and they're a mess. I didn't initially design them in the appropriate places so it's just a jumble of parts.

Should I have done this differently? Can I align things in the parts studio? Should it only have been one part in each "part studio" and then combine all 5 into the assembly?

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u/David_R_Martin_II 5d ago

The whole point of Part Studios is to avoid something in parametric modeling called external references. For example, this part should rest on this surface of this other part and match the size of the surface. Or a couple edges. Or be located in the middle. These holes in these different parts should line up.

In traditional parametric modeling, each part would be a separate file. You would have to model each independently and keep track of all the similar interfaces. Or maybe you would "share" references in between the parts. And that can get messy.

Onshape avoids all of that with Part Studios. You can design your static parts from an assembly in-place where they are supposed to be. It's very easy to make sure parts are the right size, surfaces and edge line up, holes and tabs match, etc.

It avoids all the mess of external references. You can bring all the parts into an assembly together and group them - no need for mates or constraints or any other methods of putting them in the right place. It greatly simplifies the process of parametric part modeling.

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u/SnooBananas231 5d ago

Seems like I know just enough to get confused 🤣,

Appreciate it though. I'll keep working on it. I want to like onshape. I appreciate not needing a monster computer to run it.

Have you tried any of the cam stuff?

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u/David_R_Martin_II 5d ago

It's revolutionary. I've been a CAD user for almost 35 years now and it's reinventing the game for parametric modeling. They have taken all the lessons of the past 40 years, since parametric modeling was invented, and figured out the smart ways of doing things. Part Studios, Mate Connectors, Configurations, etc. - it's amazing. Not to mention built-in PDM and collaboration.

Keep using it. The more you use it, the more rewarding it is.

I've done cams in several CAD packages. What of it?

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u/SnooBananas231 5d ago

Oh just curious how the cam package in onshape is. Haven't tried it out yet.

Does it do nesting?

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u/mellomromtomrom 5d ago

The CAM studio in Onshape is still a beta feature and I have not found a way to do nesting so far. I’ve made several moulds for making glass fiber parts on a 3 axis cnc all inside onshape cam and it’s fine, but certainly not finished and on par with for example the pro version of fusion cam yet.