Remix STEP files to suit your needs - 3D design for 3D printing

building upon the open source work of others is one of the best things about the maker community so today we explore how to remix step files [Music] this video is part of a series on creating custom 3D designs for 3D printing using a free on-shape account I'll link the entire playlist Below in the description in this video we explore customization by looking at efficient ways to modify step files for this video we're going to need a source design and I've chosen this rugged box parametric by witty as you'll see it's a very well made design in fact it won second place in the syllable boxes competition and it's very deserving of that fittingly it is a remix itself based on this toolbox parametric by yanev and that design is inspired by frog box version 2.0 by nib31 and of course we can go one level deeper as that was remixed from customizable rugged waterproof box by zx82net but back to our Target Model and the first thing I did was printed in its standard form gray pla for the body parts black ptg for the clips and black TPU for the gaskets assembly is really straightforward wood six M3 by 30 millimeter bolts two at the back for the hinges and then four at the front for the clips following this the TPU gasket is pushed down into the matching trench and that's all it takes to have a handsome rugged and functional box complete with the satisfying click when you close it this box is ideal for storing your most prized positions but what happens if we want to remix the size if we scroll down we can see that it's been remixed 172 times so let's explore how we can add to this the first thing to consider is the license we can see here that remix culture is allowed following that we can look at the model files and Source cut is provided in two different forms here firstly if we expand Fusion 360 we can get the source file for where it was designed and we have an instruction to go to modify change parameters to customize and here we see exactly why this box is so well designed we come to change parameters as instructed and then we get a comprehensive table with all of the dimensions let's say I wanted the box to go from 120 to 150 I simply type in that number click enter and the Box changes in real time before our eyes and this illustrates that where possible it's always best to start with the cad file that the object was created in in this case Fusion 360 as we have access to the full design history as well as the parameters we displayed with exactly the same concept applies to unshape the cad package we're covering for this series let's open up a random file from the public list and see that immediately there's a button that says make a copy to edit and when we click this we'll end up with our own version of the file and this includes every single part studio and assembly that forms it this same access applies for any object I ever designed on the channel I'll link the source card you can make a copy and have full access to variables as well as all of the individual features in case you want to do your own remix so that's the ideal situation but what about when the source card is more generic say for instance a step file so let's return to printables and this time concentrate on the step files with step being a de facto interchangeable Source CAD file recognized by most CAD packages with the step file downloaded in onshape we can click the plus and then go to import we select our step file and generally the default settings here are fine and we can just click import after a short while in this case we'll have four documents imported the first is a completed assembly with everything in its correct location we then have two more sub-assemblies perhaps that were used during the design of this object and then finally we have a part studio and this is a document we'll make our edits on despite everything not being aligned our first job is to come up and use the transform tool to get things Loosely in position the upper and lower half of the Box are overlapping so I'm going to click one of them change the mode to translate by XYZ and then drag it up clear of the other the exact distance doesn't particularly matter here as long as we can see clearly in between them the ceiling gasket unfortunately is going to require a few more steps again we'll come to transform but this time change the mode to rotate I'm going to select the seal set the access to a straight line along its Edge and the angle 90 degrees I'll then repeat this again rotating one more time to get it facing the same way as the rest of the components finally we'll do one more transform this time to move it into position and the alignment doesn't need to be exact here just close enough by eye with the X Y lined up I'll get the Zed roughly halfway in between and then click the tick and that means we're ready to continue with everything aligned I'm going to take a reference measurement by clicking both internal surfaces where we see the default width inside is 120 millimeters my object is 125 millimeters so I'm going to need to widen this slightly now I don't want to edit this file in a way that changes the requirement for using the M3 by 30 millimeter bolts therefore I don't want to edit the width of these latches and I don't don't want to edit the width between all of the fixings because of that I'm going to hide the two latches and then make my next selection very carefully I'm going to spin the camera so everything's aligned and then drag a box from the middle of the object down outside the lower right as you can see this selects all of the bosses for the latch as well as everything to the right of it now we're going to come up and click on move face and the important detail here is to change the default mode from offset to translate throughout direction we want to click what is a horizontal line from this Viewpoint and that will let us click and drag the arrow and immediately we get a preview of how the new shape will be I'm going to be precise here and enter a distance of five millimeters and now when I click the tick I can once again measure the internal surfaces and see that we've hit our Target measurement of 125 millimeters once the parts are aligned it's actually quite fast to make dimensional changes so let's customize a little more the front to back internal depth of this box is 70 millimeters and I actually need to make make it smaller my target being 35 millimeters and to do this we repeat the same workflow we're going to drag a box from outside the model to just past the rib that goes down the side and then once again come up to move face change the mode to translate select a line that goes in that direction and then we can either drag in to do it visually and as we do so you'll notice that these two ribs will start to overlap on shape scenes to handle this quite well but I'm going to go to 35 which is going to move it into the exact position I need and we can test this by clicking the tick and then clicking on two internal walls and seeing that we've hit our Target of 35. now in my opinion I've ruined the proportions of this case by putting these ribs too close together but we can fix that as well once again the right selection is of utmost importance I'm going to drag my box from outside the object and make sure that it stops in between the two ribs and you might have guessed it we repeat our workflow from before because we just selected the geometry that forms the ribs we can now move only that wherever we want to and by aligning the models and being able to select both boxes at once we can do both halves in the one process I'm going to go for five millimeters here then I'm going to put the camera back where it was select the second rib and repeat now the box is looking a little nicer and we've reached two about three Target Dimensions there are some limitations when we shrink surfaces for instance if we want to shorten the height of this lower half we can select all of the lower parts and like before we can drag to make it shorter but you'll notice we get to a certain point where it won't drag any further and in fact snaps back to where it began let's do that again concentrating on this corner we can see we get the error State when the two edges overlap and therefore the geometry can't mesh well together so in this case you might need to do this into operations selecting these specific edges moving them up out of the way first and that will give us more room and scope to shrink the object without causing any errors as for the base for the modifications I'm making I actually want to lower it just a little bit because I'm going to pad the inside with the foam and I require a little extra room so far as we've been moving faces we've been using translate instead of offset but you won't be wondering what offset does let's select just this bottom face you can see that we can extend the surface but unlike before it's acknowledging the surrounding geometry and maintaining it this is a great tool with the right selection to change the thickness of various walls without having to rebuild features using sketches extrusions and the other usual tools speaking of extrusions unlike an sdl we can click on any of these flat surfaces and start sketches for instance let's say we wanted to have some sort of access hole to mount a component we can now use all of onshape's regular tools to cut merge or interact with the geometry that we've imported and I imagine starting a sketch on a flat surface and adding some simple text will be a popular way for many people to create simple customizations for their own remixes we can now export our modified stls just like any other time that we're getting ready to 3D print I picked some pretty filament because I was quite excited about printing this out and assembling it when it comes to materials like this foam I'm honestly a bit of a hoarder so it felt good to trim it to size because I finally had a reason to use it and because I was careful not to change any of the dimensions regarding the latch or the locations where they mounted assembly was exactly the same as before and finally I could put a prize possession into a storage container that both looked good and would protect it from any harm and that's the beauty of remixing you can take an already great design and tailor it to suit your specific needs and that's how you can modify step files in onshape to suit your purpose whatever that is and like many of these things there will be multiple ways to achieve the same purpose so share your favorite in the comments section please make sure that if you upload your variant that your Market is a remix and you reference the original design thank you so much for watching and until next time happy customized 3D printing g'day it's Michael again if you liked the video then please click like if you want to see more content like this in future click subscribe and make sure you click on the Bell to receive every notification if you really want to support the channel and see exclusive content become a patron visit my patreon page see you next time foreign

Channel: Teaching Tech

Views: 86,070

Keywords: 3d printing, 3d print, 3d printer, 3d printed, cad, design, onshape, freecad, fusion 360, drawing, drawings, sheets, dimension, annotate, assembly, bill of materials, labels, views, section view, update, version, how to, step by step, free, tutorial, lesson, sketch, extrusion, properties, dxf, export, exploded, computer aided design, step, remix, customise, customize, rework, box, rugged, move face, offset, text, extrude

Id: lz-tLI8zzLE

Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 21 2023