Part-o-magic [New: Selection tools, container duplication]

[triplus]

I'm making a special independent container for that. Do you think I should merge them all into one mighty container? (the benefit of doing that is ability to switch container type after it's been made and populated).

Part Container i guess should have placement property and i guess it should by default be seen to the outside as a compound. Beyond that i don't know ATM what makes sense or not. And if i need things like Tip or not. Or if i really need any other property or not.

[NormandC]

Then what is the meaning of a Cube inside a Body? (create a cube in Part WB, select it, then press the Body button from PartDesign)

This process imports any type of solid as base feature in a PartDesign body, so you can use PD tools with it.

I still cant put sketches directly on it

Sure you can, but for some reason PartDesign still considers the cube a "foreign" object. So when trying to map a sketch to the cube, a dialog opens which says that selected geometries are not part of the active body, and to select a type of reference. The first two (Make independent copy/Make dependent copy) create a reference object, but "Create cross-reference" attaches the sketch directly to the cube.

[shaise]

This process imports any type of solid as base feature in a PartDesign body, so you can use PD tools with it.

Thanks! I thought its something like that.
So at least there is some workaround to work with old/external parts.

[NormandC]

Yes! But the current method is not fail proof as it does not check for a valid shape first. Currently you can create a base shape from a sketch which creates problems. I reported it in issue #2862.

[DeepSOIC]

New feature: ShapeGroup container. By default, it is a compound, but can be switched to fusion or common. Other modes ("Operation" property) not working yet.

[triplus]

I was able to create 2 shape groups and each has 2 part primitives in it. Resulting shape groups can be placed freely:

ShapeGroup.png (10.48 KiB) Viewed 1890 times

After i decided to test if i could apply Assembly 2 plane constraint between them. It worked as expected:

PlaneConstraint.png (9.17 KiB) Viewed 1890 times

Other modes ("Operation" property) not working yet.

I am guessing entering the shape group edit mode and doing whatever users wants instead isn't an option?

[DeepSOIC]

I am guessing entering the shape group edit mode and doing whatever users wants instead isn't an option?

Actually, it is!

[easyw-fc]

New feature: ShapeGroup container. By default, it is a compound, but can be switched to fusion or common. Other modes ("Operation" property) not working yet.

Great! Exactly what I was looking for! Thx
This is very useful for STEP assembly...
I tried to play with placement and it works correctly... and I can export as STEP the Group(s) assembled as in the PoM hierarchy
ATM I found a small issue... I can apply colors to sub-parts, but they get lost when exporting the file as STEP... Is there something that can be improved?

pom2.FCStd

(10.46 KiB) Downloaded 51 times

pom2.step

(16.32 KiB) Downloaded 46 times

Thx
Maurice

[DeepSOIC]

I'm afraid, to support colors, I may have to move over to c++.

[easyw-fc]

I'm afraid, to support colors, I may have to move over to c++.

If I can ask... please have a try.
I found this wb so useful for assembly road