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Re: Improvements to Onshape - October 9, 2026
Next we could use Propagate Display States.
When we have several sub assemblies, we like to use display states to hide show parts since we still need the BOM qty totals.
When you have to go through several assemblies and hide the same parts on each it is time consuming.
This could be a button next to the update display state, which propagates current hide/show status from it's children assemblies.
Re: Improvements to Onshape - October 9, 2026
I was actually EXPECTING that first thing when I read about it, then got quite a bit disappointed when I found it was more or less eye candy, at least in the modeling context. It makes no sense just to look at it. We need it's location to reference things to it. If it can't be directly used as an MC, we should at least be able to attach one to it. Mates should work on it (yes, it makes sense to attach a part to the center of mass of e.g. another rotating part). Also, there needs to be a way to connect it to a formula or a variable. Geometry like counterweights might need to follow it's location or be calculated from it.
As it stands now, there isn't even a rudimentary coordinate readout, unlike with any standard mate connector. I think this should be given a second thought to make it usful as an engineering tool, beyond documentation in drawings.
Also, I found that the CoM detached from the assembly after the session got suspended due to timeout: It would then stop moving with the parts and required more than a browser refresh to get back to work. I needed to hide and then show it again, from the tree.
On the other hand, I found it surprising that I could grab the CoM marker and 'animate' the whole mechanism (Sample) just by dragging the marker. So there IS an interactive bidirectional connection going on somewhere inside …
Re: Improvements to Onshape - October 9, 2026
I did some video recording yesterday about configurations and now I have to re-shoot. Rude!
jk the config propagation is awesome!
Custom Feature: Material & Grain definition + Grain Layout for sheet goods
TL;DR: FS kit to tag parts with material, finish and grain direction + a grain-oriented-layout feature, ready for a drawing callouts and CNC file prep.
Material and Grain definition - try it out and come back with suggestions.
I'm releasing it hoping people will fork it and build on it. I'll keep improving it and keep the document updated - hopefully this starts an interesting discussion.
I built it with an experimental MCP setup, exploring a problem that has people resorting to all sorts of workarounds and cheats to manage materials, finishes and grain direction for CNC file prep and drawings: a part doesn't carry enough data on what it's made of. Once it does, useful things open up downstream.
Huge props to whoever first made Auto Layout - it's been a major inspiration, and a very useful FS for the community for years. I've (AI mostly) built this from the ground up refraining from taking code from other FS's to test my AI setup, but obviously Auto Layout has been a major inspiration and a very useful FS to the community since forever.
Material & Grain - the definer
Pick a material, pick each part's visible (decor) face, and click the arrows on the face to turn the grain 90°. It then writes onto the part:
- An attribute - material, measured thickness, decor face, grain direction and decor-face area. This is what the layout reads.
- Part properties - Title 1 = thickness, Title 2 = paint code, Title 3 = decor-face area - for drawings and BOMs.
- Appearance and material, so colors follow the material choice and mass properties come out right.
- A texture decal on the decor face, aligned to the grain. The image is a manual pick for now - I haven't found a way for FS to choose one per material automatically.
The grain direction sticks to the face and travels with the part through patterns and transforms, like a decal does. - 3 modes: Decor - pick from a list of products, typical for MFC; Grain - pick from a list of grains, select a texture image; Painted - pick a substrate material and define it's color either from a list of RAL tones or paste in a HEX code.
Grain Layout - the consumer
- No selection: one instance finds every tagged part in the Part Studio, groups them by material and exact thickness, and packs each group onto sheets (MaxRects best-short-side-fit on bounding rectangles).
- Grained materials stay locked to the sheet's grain axis; plain ones can also turn 90° for a tighter pack. The first sheet dimension is the grain axis.
- Parts land decor face down by default. Untick Decor face down to put the larger side down instead, or pick faces to force them down.
- Each sheet gets an outline, and each row a label with its material, thickness and sheet count. Funny enough - this is actually the heaviest part of the FS.
- Run layout! is off by default - laying out is the heavy part, and you'll likely open the dialog a few times while setting it up.
- Part validation is in the code but switched off in this build; it needs more work.
Drawings and DXF
A bottom view with Show hidden lines, exported to DXF, puts part outlines and through holes on the visible layer and blind holes on the hidden layer, along with the row labels. It's a bottom view, so mirror the DXF to get what the CNC sees - the labels come out mirrored, so that's hard to miss. The labels are one flat Composite part, because a drawing can't show a sketch made inside a feature. Sheet outlines show in the Part Studio only, so they stay out of the CNC file.
Callouts and BOM tables can pull thickness, paint code and decor area straight off the parts, so the model stays the source of truth for materials and finishes.
Limits
- It packs bounding rectangles, not silhouettes - a step up from Auto Layout, not a nesting optimizer. Good for quick material estimates.
- Parts go at 0° or 90° only. Easy addition in case of popular demand.
- The definer owns Titles 1–3 and the part color. A hand-edited value permanently overrides what it writes.Hand-edited part colors break the feature's ability to paint the parts. Reset all properties fixes that.
- Texture images are picked per feature, not stored in the library. Use images with the pattern running horizontally and larger than any part at real scale - one centered decal then covers the face without distortion.
Forking it
The materials and paint colors are lookup tables in their own tab. I've generated a starter set, but the idea is that you fork it and build your own library, since everyone's material preferences differ. Or I might expand the library if there's request for that…
Re: How Do You Make A Sphere??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Be careful with your question marks! We're each allotted a finite number of them, and when they are gone, you will no longer be able to ask questions on the Internet.
