Pipe feature

andy_morris

We've had requests for a pipe feature, so you can avoid the current create plane --> create profile sketch --> sweep workflow.
Thanks to @ilya_baran and the wonders of FeatureScript, here is a custom feature for pipes.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/153cc3c8228c34a47f0b88d5/v/584ae1f362b4922e7cec3fe2/e/56f7232dfddc387a4c9e3f9c

Just select the path from edges or sketches and set the OD and ID.

 

owen_sparks

That's really rather good, and presumably will rebuild just fine if upstream dimensions are changed, just as long as ID's stay the same?

OwS

andy_morris

Yes, its just like any other Onshape feature in that regards.

ilya_baran

The latest version (V4) has been updated to also support disjoint straight pipe segments with mate connectors.

coleman

@andy_morris
If feature scripts are so easy....why don't you guys just make this (and others) standard functionality?

Jake_Rosenfeld

@coleman

It's a lot easier to make little tools like this that work in specific cases than to make general tools that are mostly bug-proof and useful in the general case.

A lot of the FeatureScript custom features that we post on the forum are quick tools that enable a specific person or group of people to get a job done, but may have obvious bugs, limited functionality, or no great place to fit into our standard feature set.

You can imagine that a tool like this would be much more useful if you could select an arbitrary sketch profile from either inside this part studio, or another part studio.  It would also be much more useful with branching, and miters between branched pipes.  Decisions about this and other added functionality go through multiple iterations of design and user testing before a new feature is ready to be released into our standard feature set. 

Just because we don't have a general, robust solution yet, doesn't mean we shouldn't enable some people's workflows by releasing small specific tools over different channels.  If every custom feature we wrote was added to the standard library, it would be a big polluted mess!

konstantin_shiriazdanov

Jake_Rosenfeld said:

If every custom feature we wrote was added to the standard library, it would be a big polluted mess!

A good place to say "thank you" for making featurescript so close to the user that we can make "mess" for ourselves. No any other CAD that has scripting environment in a list of standart invironment types on the first page of the project.

MBartlett21

@ilya_baran
@andy_morris
@Jake_Rosenfeld
Here is a pipe feature that works with multiple paths in the one feature (I created my own constructPaths feature)
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/e89f406ea0fb1b1a9225a055

PS: Thank you for FeatureScript, otherwise none of this would be possible

Tony_C_

Cool.  Now can you make it put in all the fittings too? 

Jake_Rosenfeld

Great stuff @mbartlett21 !

MBartlett21

@Tony_C_
Can you give an example?

MBartlett21

Thanks @Jake_Rosenfeld

MBartlett21

I have just made the constructPaths library public (I didn't realise it was private)
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3021561771935e716a44c1b1

ilya_baran

@mbartlett21

Very cool!

owen_sparks

Botanist cool?

sebastian_glanzner

The pipe feature is really nice!

You can use it to make compression springs based on helix features:

MBartlett21

wout_theelen541

I just took a look at the FS there's an error generating the pipe in your example part studio

robert_barber444

Is there a way to use this feature with a tapered and bent pipe? I am trying to model a pipe that is 1" on the left end, has a slight bend, and smoothly tapers out to 2" at the right end