🌐 CAD Best Practices

As a team, we’ve come to see Onshape as an essential part of the FTC build process. Whether you're new to CAD or just looking to build stronger habits, learning the fundamentals makes a big difference. To help you get started, we’ve created a simple walkthrough through creating a smiley face you can follow below to build confidence and set a strong foundation in the basics of CADing through Onshape.

Creating the document

Click the “Create” button in the left hand corner of the dashboard to start a new document
Whenever you start a new project, always check to see the workspace units
- Millimeters are used more often than inches since its more specific and universal
Confirm the workspace units
This menu bar also allows you to do other general tasks including renaming and moving to a separate folder

SETTING UP OUR SKETCH

In the Part Studio

Make sure the screen is on the part studio tab, not the assembly.
The part studio tab is where we create custom designs

Choose the plane, either the front, top, or right plane to start your first sketch
We’ll start off with the top since we want the smiley face to be lying flat upwards.

Knowing the hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) for Onshape will make managing the features much faster. Don’t feel the need to memorize them but with time they will come naturally.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

General Shortcuts:

N - view normal to the sketch plane (helpful when sketching)

P - hide/show planes (helpful when isolating sketch)

Enter - commits the command

Esc - exit the current command

Shift + Enter - Commits the command and opens another dialog of the same command

Space - deselects selected features

For Macbooks: (For other laptops, the shortcut is ctrl instead of cmd)

Cmd + C - copy selected feature(s)

Cmd + V - Paste selected feature(s)

Cmd + Z - undo a previous command

Cmd + R - undo a previous command

Basic Sketching:

(You’ll notice that most of the hotkeys mentioned for these specific commands are listed within the toolbar)

L - line selection

Q - any drawing command will be depicted as a construction feature

C - circles

G - rectangle

Shift + S - point (helpful for constraining features)

M - trim a segment when intersected

X - extend to a certain point on the same axis

O - offset a pre-drawn sketch

U - copy a feature from a previous sketch/ extrusion

Constraint hotkeys within sketching:

!!! One of the best ways to prevent your sketches from looking cluttered is constraints !!!

I - coincident two features (will be used very often)

B - make lines parallel to each other

T - tangent

*H & V - horizontal and vertical (so helpful for constraining a sketch to an origin or other feature)

E - make multiple parts equal to each other in measurement

Although there is no shortcut for the mirror tool it is also very helpful. Use a construction line as your line of symmetry and click on features you want to mirror to the other side.

BACK TO THE SKETCH

Reminder: We are working on mm as the default workspace measurements.

Try to make this sketch on your own. Use the construction line in the beginning to mirror the other half.

Use the ellipse tool for the eyes.

Use the Center Point arc for one half of an arc. Coincident to the construction line. Offset that arc inwards. And create a tangent arc in between the two.

After the left side (or whatever side you started on) is complete, mirror onto the other side. The sketch is not constrained yet. Add the dimensions to make the sketch constrained. Constraints might need to be added.

Now that the sketch looks like mine, click the check mark to complete the sketch. ✅

Key tip: Always make sure a sketch is fully defined to make it easier for when you go back and edit!

EXTRUDING

Extrude the entire face of the sketch by 10mm.

Now create a new sketch on top of the extruded face.

Select the “Use” tool and grab the sketch entities of the eyes and mouth from the first sketch. This tool is helpful for adding additional features to an extruded part and keeping the same measurements.

Select the shapes from sketch 2 and remove these entities from part 1 by 5mm.

Oftentimes, a final part is not finished until the part is filleted or chamfered to get a clean look. We will now fillet the insides of the removed entities by 2mm. *Filleting/chamfered in the extrusion step is much easier to go back and edit then in the sketch. *

Hopefully this gives you a basic understanding of how extruding a sketch part works.

If you have any questions at any point in this guide, feel free to email team11770@marlborough.org.

Key tip: ALWAYS Name your parts, sketches, and all features to stay organized.

DRAWINGS OF PARTS

Drawings can be created in multiple ways. The most straightforward way is to highlight the part you want to draw and right click for, “Create Drawing of _____”. There are multiple options for how to layout the drawing. The way shown above is by clicking on the four views button.