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Improvements to Onshape - October 20th, 2018

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Comments

  • don_williams909don_williams909 Member Posts: 138 PRO
    So...  I would Love to see the Configurations be included in Display States.  And, as others have pointed out, getting all of that to a drawing would be great.
    Also, being able to have an "Explode" state like what Creo does is Extremely Useful for drawing purposes.  That seems to be another drawback of hanging all the hopes of assemblies on Mate Connectors.  I'm not sure how you would create a toggled "explode" feature to an assembly that can be toggled both in a drawing and in an assembly with everything locked by the Mate Connectors.  They're really great for some things, but handcuff others.

    I'm currently working on an Assembly that has several parts that would or would not be included in different Configurations.  To be able to show my supervisor (with a single click) the differences between one concept an another, and how they impact an assembly during the development process would be phenomenal.  While it's nice and very useful to be able to do that in a Part Studio, where it really adds value is in an Assembly.

    I really have to commend Onshape for listening to their users and adding reasonably well thought-out features to the product, and being so thoughtful as to release the updates globally to all users.  This couldn't be possible if it weren't for the fact that this product is web-based.
    Now if I could get you folks to create the functionality of Creo's Parameter-driven modeling and menu systems. I'd really be a happy camper.
    :-)
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    Creo's Parameter-driven modeling and menu systems. 
    Can you be a bit more specific? 
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • don_williams909don_williams909 Member Posts: 138 PRO
    edited November 2018
    NeilCooke said:
    Creo's Parameter-driven modeling and menu systems. 
    Can you be a bit more specific? 
    Hi Neil, you do some of it, in a round-about kind of way, but with Creo's Parameters, you can drive all sorts of data from one place - driving dimensions for scripts, titles of parts, revisions, scale of drawings, etc. etc...  It's pretty hard to explain.  I guess you would have to be a former Creo user to really appreciate or understand the things it has to offer.  But the Parameters are just a small thing that is very useful. 

    It seems that most of what develops here in Onshape is based on what Solidworks has done, and it's not necessarily the most ideal approach.  But then, there's not a perfect solution to anything out there in the market place.  Not even NX or Creo or some other more expensive options are completely ideal, and they all have their own "language" that users must learn.  I guess, I would have assumed that the the Development Team at Onshape had licenses of their competitor's products to look for features that they would see great value in, to be able to develop in similar fashion.

    For example:
    As mentioned in my original post, Creo has the ability to create what are called "Combined States" in an assembly, which include the ability to show different (in Onshape Language) Configurations, Display States, and exploded states (with the ability to add explode lines), all in named "combined states".  These then can be chosen (and modified!) in an assembly drawing with a simple menu toggle in the drawing setup.  But it's the Assembly options and states that drive what you get with the drawing.  It makes the drawing especially easy to create.  You can even click on a simple command to then view all the dimensions that were created while sketching the parts, and then you can choose to hide or show which ones you want in the drawing, or then add more. 

    You guys really need some folks who have been users of other software than Solidworks and <gag> Autocad on your Development Team!
    ( hint, hint ! )

    But, all that said, you folks are doing a fantastic job of building a terrific product, bit by bit.  Keep up the great work...



  • lanalana Onshape Employees Posts: 689
    @don_williams909
    While assembly configurations are under development you could try using different workspaces to represent different states of assemblies. If changes to part studios are needed, you can merge them into all the branches. This takes a bit of planning the document structure, but is quite doable.
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    ^^^ I think we found the leak!!! ^^^ :):):)
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    Guess i need to follow lana on twitter
  • StephenGStephenG Member Posts: 367 ✭✭✭
    I would like to comment on my October 22 post in which I took exception to the new "Display State" functionality, calling it a band-aid and asking for its removal. Given all the down votes (9) my comment received I felt a clarification response was needed.

    I would like to think that most of the down votes were related to the negative tone of the comment, which in retrospect was over-the-top and inappropriate in this Forum Discussion Thread.

    I have a presumption (prior CAD experience bias) of Assembly Configuration functionality based own my own immediate needs and how I think the functionality should be implemented. Clearly I am failing to see OS's bigger picture regarding Assembly Configurations.  So why is it I cannot see the bigger picture?  I have come to the conclusion I do not see the picture because no picture has been made available to look at. Clearly there is a major disconnect between what OS has planned and what I think is needed. My knee jerk negative reaction to Display States was the result of it appearing to be another example of functionality that falls way short of what is needed, for example, one cannot reference display states in drawings.

    Based on comments by others, Display State functionality might be a piece of Assembly Configurations puzzle. Currently, this is only conjecture by the user community, but I have a strong feeling this is the case. I wish OS would have been a little more upfront in this update as to how Display States might be leveraged by future functionality. This would change the focus from a feature that falls short, to it being a positive step towards something greater... Assembly Configurations?    

    My conjecture is Part Configurations philosophy and UI is the primary influencer for Assembly Configurations functionality. I am concerned that too much of Part Configurations is being implemented in Assembly Configurations which has impeded its availability. I view Part and Assembly configurations  as completely different problem domains requiring different solutions. Part Configurations was something a user can use or ignore, whereas, assembly configurations should be integral to a basic assembly definition.  

    Assembly Configurations is something that will have a profound impact on (radically change) the way OS assemblies will be created and used. From a product definition standpoint assembly configurations will be the single greatest upgrade to the product since its initial release. Therefore, I am baffled why OS chooses to keep the user community in the dark until they are ready to unveil it in its full glory. 

    A little more transparency by OS relative to what functionality improvements are stacked in the pipeline, how they will work, and when to expect them would go a long way towards establishing realistic expectations by users.      

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