I need help with the basics of onshape. I’ve never used CAD and I only have a chromebook accessible. Any help is appreciated.
Onshape actually has a very thorough online curriculum. If u go to the website and place your cursor over “learn” and click on “learning center” you should be redirected to another page. On this page, clack on “self-paced courses” and then click on “all self-paced courses”. This should take you to a page with multiple video tutorials on all the features of onshape. It looks like:
IMO Onshape is a bit unwieldy at first (I started in Inventor) but over time it’s easy to find your groove.
Good luck!
8 Likes
Makers Muse also has some good onshape tutorials as well.
Might be a little bit unrelated, but how does one really go about creating a VEX EDR CAD design? Is it just the rough idea of gears, sprockets, and motion mechanisms mated onto the structural parts, or is it much more thorough with every single screw, nut, and bearing being put into place? Any help is appreciated!
CAD is basically building your robot without having to build your robot so yes, you would be going down to the screw and nut in the CAD. Initially however, it is just a rough idea of where everything goes. I like to come up with a concept sketch (pen and paper) and then CADing so I at least know what I’m trying to accomplish in the design
3 Likes
I wouldn’t do this, since all it does is make your software more laggy.
1 Like
Good point. I have the specs to do it and I tend to try and make my robots rly compact so sometimes the screws get in the way though I can see y people shouldn’t
2 Likes
The extent of modeling varies with the end use. For a VEX robot, in the basic design process, fasteners are usually left out. For example, parts are located and constrained using various mates rather than fasteners. Concentric mates can be used to create pivoting joints without bearings or screws being used. Adding the bearings and fasteners, as needed, can begin to show if there are clearance and interference issues, like a moving joint running into a screw, nut, or bearing flat. They can also make your final drawings and renderings more professional.
Moving from VEX to the real world, there are a couple aspects were CAD modeling excels in engineering, first, when simulation (FEA analysis for example) is used in assemblies and multibody parts, the fasteners (or welding, for a weldment) are required for the software to calculate load transfer between components. Secondly, the BOM (Bill of Materials) in manufacturing is the most important of all documents, as it drives purchasing, assembly, and costing for the entire project. In my company, every nut, bolt, screw, gasket, cotter pin, is included in the assembly so that they are properly accounted on the BOM. Sometimes, you even add lubricants, sealant, or welding consumables to the assembly (as invisible components) so they show up on the BOM and get ordered/costed too. This can certainly slow down performance; however the higher end software like Solidworks and Catia are optimized to handle multi-body parts, weldments, sheet metal, and large assemblies (over 10,000 parts), to make working with the full-scale assemblies, complete with fasteners, manageable.
6 Likes
Thanks for the detailed response. Definitely cleared things up