Why FeatureScripts?

don_williams909

Why make people find scripts and add them to their documents menu?

Why rely on people making feature scripts for basic functions that should simply be incorporated into the software?

I understand that it leaves things open to development, and allows some degree of customization, but wouldn't it simply be better just to add them all to basic menus?  It's not like the basic menu is exactly cluttered with items on it.

It leaves me feeling like Onshape only has basic functionality, not much in the way advanced functions, and to do anything beyond that is a hunt for things that hopefully someone outside of Onshape has developed.  Feels more like open-source software with huge limitations.

billy2

It's not that you have to, it's that you can.

Personally I'm blown away at the popularity of feature script and applaud the innovation. 

This isn't a bad thing, it's wonderful.

ilya_baran

Let me add a little more.  Most custom features people have written fall into one of the following categories:
1. Functionality that should be part of Onshape that we have not had a chance to implement internally.
2. Custom features for specific manufacturing processes, like woodworking joinery.
3. Custom features designed to solve a problem a specific user (or a small number of users) have.  Both we and community members will occasionally post a custom feature in response to a forum question that helps another user, but is not generally useful.
4. Custom features that are like our built-in features, but with a little customization (or maybe combining two features into one)
5. Custom features that enable an enterprise to implement essentially a CAD system within a CAD system, tailored to their specific needs.  For example, we have customers that use custom features (combined with configurations, importing, etc.) to build a rendition of their entire product from just a collection of modeled boxes.

I think you're mostly asking about the first category.  A number of our built-in features (like fit spline, rib, etc.) started out this way.  The reason we work this way is that Onshape is constantly under development (see the tri-weekly updates) and we can't implement everything all at once.  Having custom features as workarounds allows us to get feedback on their UX, focus development resources where customers cannot be unblocked by the community, and then migrate the functionality to the product.  Since our built-in features are also written in FeatureScript, custom features are first-class citizens and can be used in production.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@don_williams909

In addition to Ilya's description, it would be great if you shared what you are feeling is missing from Onshape.  We are always listening, and it would be great to know what missing functionality is making the product frustrating.

NeilCooke

@don_williams909 can you share an example of what you’re trying to do?

chrisjh777

Tangent Plane.

Cris_Bowers

chrisjh777 said:

Tangent Plane.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/bf6c7eb75464c508d6119df4/v/f07ff4c832f0784cc61ec336/e/1ff9ae6f794b6d40697ce0e3?jumpToIndex=153

chrisjh777

@Cris_Bowers.

 I am aware of Featurescript "Tangent Plane" and use it regularly.  The point of the original post was that such fundamental CAD functions should be built into Onshape and not be a a Featurescript Addon.  As pointed out by others, Featurescript is a wonderful tool for customization.   I believe Featurescript should be used for specialist functions, not basic functions.  

don_williams909

chrisjh777 said:

 I am aware of Featurescript "Tangent Plane" and use it regularly.  The point of the original post was that such fundamental CAD functions should be built into Onshape and not be a a Featurescript Add-on.  As pointed out by others, Featurescript is a wonderful tool for customization.   I believe Featurescript should be used for specialist functions, not basic functions.  

Precisely.

don_williams909

Jake_Rosenfeld said:

@don_williams909

In addition to Ilya's description, it would be great if you shared what you are feeling is missing from Onshape.  We are always listening, and it would be great to know what missing functionality is making the product frustrating.

I think I was just feeling like so much basic functionality should be resident within the software, and not up to customers to have to code to make work for themselves.  But then, I'm not exactly a "power user" of Onshape, so I'm guessing there's a lot it can do that I'm not aware of, and that I haven't even begun to explore.  I'm basically a bit lazy, and don't want to have to learn how to code a script to make something work...

tim_hess427

@don_williams909 - I can understand the frustration. There are definitely lots of things that are still missing from Onshape. 

They key thing is, resources are limited and things have to be prioritized. That's where the feature requests and support tickets help out. 

I doubt that the onshape developers are withholding improvements just because somebody created a work-around on their own. I'm pretty sure I've heard of them incorporating feature script improvements into the production code.