Referencing outside Sketches

[MikeDewitt]

Hi,

I seem to recall reading about how to do this a year or more back, but cannot recall a good search term to help me. I have found references to "Link to External geometry" but all are for older versions and the "Link to edge" icon has a drop down menu that 0.19 does not.

Using 0.19, I have a Part and 4-Sketches in Plan (XY) view.

I now want to created Bodies that refer to Lines/Edges within those 4-Sketches. I tried Shape Binder (blue and green) but they seem to require actual padded shapes and the Sketches are complex detailed 2D-Plans and not suitable to pad.

Code: Select all

  Part bicycle
    Sketch-wheel-front
    Sketch-wheel-back
    Sketch-Fork-front
    ...
    Body-wheel-front
      Sketch-rim <-- Within this Sketch I'd like to select the Diameters etc from "Sketch-wheel-front" above

Is this possible and how?

And, if not, how should I be going about this with many hours already spent on the 4-Sketches.

[Bance]

Use expressions:-

Expressions

EDIT : And if you want them to be variables you can link the master sketch dimensions to a spreadsheet.

[drmacro]

Hi,

I seem to recall reading about how to do this a year or more back, but cannot recall a good search term to help me. I have found references to "Link to External geometry" but all are for older versions and the "Link to edge" icon has a drop down menu that 0.19 does not.

Using 0.19, I have a Part and 4-Sketches in Plan (XY) view.


I now want to created Bodies that refer to Lines/Edges within those 4-Sketches.
I tried Shape Binder (blue and green) but they seem to require actual padded shapes and the Sketches are complex detailed 2D-Plans and not suitable to pad.

Pads are not necessary for shapebinders.

Code: Select all

  Part bicycle
    Sketch-wheel-front
    Sketch-wheel-back
    Sketch-Fork-front
    ...
    Body-wheel-front
      Sketch-rim <-- Within this Sketch I'd like to select the Diameters etc from "Sketch-wheel-front" above

Is this possible and how?

And, if not, how should I be going about this with many hours already spent on the 4-Sketches.

I assume Part bicycle is a Part object (yellow stair icon). I don't use them, in general not necessary. YMMV

Normally you could have several body objects. The body objects can have shapebinders from the sketches

[drmacro]

Just an example:

Snip macro screenshot-8873ef.png (316.84 KiB) Viewed 177 times

[MikeDewitt]

OK, thanks I am off to try again.

[MikeDewitt]

Pads are not necessary for shapebinders.

Ahh, OK, thanks, that helped me figure it out. The "Add Geometry" does not work like the "add Edge" for Fillets and Chamfers. I have to click "Add Geometry" for every line/edge even though the button goes darker gray like Fillets/Chamfers.

I assume Part bicycle is a Part object (yellow stair icon). I don't use them, in general not necessary. YMMV

I use it to keep Bodies in collectives. I recently built a new CoreXY printer and having a Part for each axis made finding stuff easier when there are several hundred Bodies in total as you can collapse the Parts. But, still easy to expand to check on a dimension or whatever in another axis.

[drmacro]

...
I use it to keep Bodies in collectives. I recently built a new CoreXY printer and having a Part for each axis made finding stuff easier when there are several hundred Bodies in total as you can collapse the Parts. But, still easy to expand to check on a dimension or whatever in another axis.

For organization, a group might be more lightweight and doesn't add an additional coordinate system (on top of each coordinate system a Body has).

One of the assembly workbenches is probably the better tool...well , to make assembles.

[MikeDewitt]

For organization, a group might be more lightweight and doesn't add an additional coordinate system (on top of each coordinate system a Body has).

One of the assembly workbenches is probably the better tool...well , to make assembles.

Thanks, I was not aware of Group. I will do some research.

The Sketches are not intended as assemblies, they are just 2D plans if where stuff is to go and I found myself having to refer them when I started with the Bodies.

I am using the ShapeBender. I may be doing it wrong, but I have to create one for each Body then select the Edges. Often it is the same set of edges for multiple Bodies. The current project looks a little like a ladder and the "rungs" are all basically the same, except they have holes in different spots. So now I have 7-Bodies (rungs) and 7-ShapeBenders.

In my OP, I was looking for something like a single ShapeBender-kind-of-thing that would be available to all Bodies within a Part.

I am sure I saw something about that process a year or so back, but cannot remember the terms that were used to use in a Search. It was the same way that a Sketch as the first item in a Body is available to all Sketches within that Body. I was after an expansion of that concept with the Part. The initial Sketches in the Part would ripple down through all Bodies and Sketches until another Part is defined.

It may have been more than a year and may have been before Part/Bodies were available.

[MikeDewitt]

Just an example:

Thanks, that got me started. But, as I mentioned to drmacro in my previous reply, I was hoping for something where I did not have to create the ShapeBinder for each body then select the same edges as the previous Body/ShapeBinder. I have now got 7-Bodies and 7-ShapeBinders and the ShapeBinders all have the same stuff selected.

I wonder if I can just copy the ShapeBinder from one Body to the Next. Off to try that.

EDIT: OK, copying the initial ShapeBinder with all the edges I need into each new Body seems to work.