I have to design several wood boxes who will be bases for acrylic showcase boxes. They have all different sizes but the construction is the same and quite simple. So what I’m looking to do is to design a generic construction with constraints once, and then be able to change a few variables like the boards thickness, the thickness of the acrylic and the width height length of the box and I would get the dimensions of my wood boards to do the cutting.

I never used the assembly workbenches, can they be useful in my cases?

  • 1ko@lemmy.worldOP
    2·
    25 days ago

    Thanks. I just discovered the spreadsheet and aliases, pretty straightforward to use the values in the sketch. Now I have yet to find out how to create multiple parts.

    • madnificent@lemmy.world
      2·
      24 days ago

      That’s great!

      I’d create one body (the blue icon) per shape you want to cut. You can reference the same spreadsheet.

      If you want to reference geometry from another body, activate the body where you want to use it (doubleclick in the hierarchy), select the face of the other body, and use the subshape binder (the green icon with red dots I think). Calculating everything from the spreadsheet is the more stable option.

      Looking forward to see what you come up with if you choose to share it.

      • 1ko@lemmy.worldOP
        2·
        22 days ago

        Thanks, I created a first sketch+pad for the top plate on the XY plane, the the side plate on the XZ plane, now the side plate sit at the center of the top plate, how should I move it to the side of the top plate?

        • madnificent@lemmy.world
          2·
          21 days ago

          If you’ve made multiple bodies, you can place them by selecting the body in the tree view. Then open the scary property view, open the data tab, Base, Placement, Position.

          You can scroll to roughly put things in position but I’d use a formula in there so you can model in place and have a visual for each configuration.

          If you want to reuse a body for left/right you could make a clone or start thinking about the assembly workbench

          The data tab contains interesting info. Open it from time to time so it feels less scary. It allows to set the properties from a pad or update constraints from a sketch quickly. Moving a sketch around can be strange though as the axes are relative to the sketch’s coordinates.

            • madnificent@lemmy.world
              2·
              14 days ago

              Best I know of is TechDraw but that may not be as automated as you’d like. You essentially take the shapes and label the dimensions you want to show. Shapes/dimensions can be refreshed, likely also through a macro for multiple sheets if you need that.

              I don’t know the UI by memory but the flow is along the lines of: create TechDraw sheet; set scale; import shape; choose views of shape (top, front, …); add dimensions. This can be exported and printed.

              I think you can also save the current view of a sketch (save image or such in the menu?) but have not tried it and don’t know how repeatable that is and if you’ll run out of coloured ink in no time.

              Looking forward to look at your attached designs!