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Too many unknowns (pieces?) (by P Dii)
Hi

I am trying to draw a section of a keyboard key plate in solvespace and it involves many iterations of the same part (keyshape2-1p.slvs) Which is rather heavily constrained. When I try to build at2-key-mid4.slvs (which was an initial test with wrong dimensions) with that shape (rather than just the squares). it keeps crashing. Once before it crashed I got an error saying "too many unknowns" so I tried constraining it as much as possible but that didn't work either
I have also tried translating half the middle, and drawing half, rotating and then extruding but that crashes when I try to save the file.
Also I can not just import the keyshape as each time I import, I can no longer affect the previous shapes.
Am I going about this wrong or are there just too many pieces for solvespace?

The same thing happens even when I remove the side notches (I have to keep the top notch as it is where the keys clip into).
Mon Apr 1 2019, 17:20:37, download attachment keyshape2-1p.slvs
second drawing (by P Dii)
The second attachment (I could only attach one)
Mon Apr 1 2019, 17:21:35, download attachment at2-key-mid4.slvs
(no subject) (by Andrew)
Keyshape still has 2 degrees of freedom, which can be eliminated by making the center of the shape coincident with the center of the plane. This has no impact on placing them in the second drawing. After that I was able to link a keyshape, constrained to a line in a test shape, and step translate the shape along the line. The group can be extruded, after selecting the XY plane and selecting in plane in sketch menu. Extrusion needs a workplane whose normal is the direction of the extrude, but this does not need to be the plane of the sketch.

Each Keyshape insertion needs to be followed by an extrude, or translate group and extrude.

Hope this helps.
Mon Apr 1 2019, 20:22:36
(no subject) (by P Dii)
Thanks, I tried it that way as well, but solvespace still crashes after a certain number of iterations of the keyshape.

Is it the number of unknowns or the number of constraints that is the issue?

Note: I am using solvespace 2.3 from debians repository.
Tue Apr 2 2019, 15:33:47
(no subject) (by Andrew)
With one more change, I extruded the keyshape, I was able to use it to make all the cutouts using link and step translate. Difference is an option with a linked object. I am using Manjaro, and version 2.3. and while it got a little laggy, it did not crash. I used you square cutouts to locate the key shapes, but ideally they would not be there, and you would place the keyshape. With step translating, you can constrain the first copy relative to the base object to set the pattern, with the only limitation being the objects have the same orientation.

File with the cutouts added, as a zip needed the compression to avoid the attachment limit.
Tue Apr 2 2019, 16:47:27, download attachment at2-key-mid4_with_cutouts.zip
(no subject) (by Tom)
As far as your "import" issue, you could put the key shape in a separate file and then make multiple copies of it with "link". Then changes in the key shape file will flow into your second file when you regenerate.

SolveSpace gets slow if you have more than a few dozen entities in a group. If you have more, then it's better to split into multiple groups. You can draw a single section in multiple groups if you draw it in a separate file, and then "link" and extrude.
Wed Apr 3 2019, 01:42:33
(no subject) (by P Dii)
Thanks, I finally managed to get complete it. what I ended up doing was saving the shape before it crashed and then linking that shape in a different drawing and then continuing to link keyshapes from there. It took 5 - 6 such iterations to get the whole piece. I just have to make sure any changes propagate through to the final shape.

Sorry about my terminology (or lack thereof). I used import to mean both "copy and paste" and link (I was trying both). I still have to get used to using link as it is much better. I had previously thought it was only for solids.
Thu Apr 4 2019, 18:32:47
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