Improvements to Onshape - March 22nd, 2019

Roy_Mutalik

Welcome to another release of Onshape! Let's take a look at some of the new features.

CAD IMPROVEMENTS

SEARCH FOR A FEATURE

Certainly a heavily-requested improvement, we've now included a Feature search tool!

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/atd9n9w0gs

The Feature Search can be activated at any time using the shortcut Alt+C (Windows) or Option+C (Mac).

The Feature Search also does some matching of terminology from other CAD tools. For example, searching for "boss" will propose some Onshape-equivalent options you may be looking for.

SWAP DRAWING SHEET FORMAT IN AN EXISTING ONSHAPE DRAWING

When changes are made to an Onshape drawing template (DWT), we now have an easy way to update the title block and border for existing, already created Onshape Drawings.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/zlkks7zdw2

CUSTOM PROPERTY SEARCH BY ANY PROPERTY

Searching from the documents list now allows filtering by custom properties that were created in a company. Simply select an appropriate item from the "Type" filter at the top, and then "Add criteria" for the property you wish to search on.

DRAWING PERFORMANCE: JOGGED ASSEMBLY SECTION CUTS

Building on performance improvements from the last release, jogged assembly section views have been improved. Users should expect to see faster view creation and update, particularly on complex views and assemblies with many parts.

DRAWING CHAMFER DIMENSION

Onshape introduces a new dimension tool for calling out Chamfer features. 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/s57cl5htx2

Note that the Chamfer dimension tool must be selected explicitly from the list of dimension tools. The styles of 45-degree vs. non-45-degree Chamfers, along with the precisions of the dimensions can be controlled independently from the Drawing properties. Be sure to check out the Help Documentation for more info.

MORE ORDINATE DIMENSION IMPROVEMENTS

Additional improvements were made to ordinate dimensions in this release, to show a live preview of the location of the dimensions as you drag them.

DYNAMIC CURVATURE COMBS ON SKETCH DRAG

Where previously you have had the ability to display the curvature of sketch entities statically, with this release the curvature-comb display is now dynamic and updates in realtime on drag. This is especially useful when manipulating spline points.

PARTIAL BOUNDARIES FOR SURFACE LOFT, FILL FEATURES

If the profiles or guide curves extends further than necessary, we can now select to trim them directly in the Loft feature (Surface). The Fill feature can similarly handle a partial boundary, trimming all excess automatically.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/pyahtsv475

iOS (MOBILE) IMPROVEMENTS

IMPROVED SELECTION WORKFLOWS IN ARRAY DIALOGS

It is now possible to select items to fill out array dialogs that require multiple selections (such as those used in Loft, Fill, Fillet, etc.). This improvement will greatly reduce the number of on-screen "taps" required to complete a feature, as the user will no longer have to "tap" the array field in the dialog each time before selecting the next piece of geometry.

DOCUMENTATION IMPROVEMENTS

SHARING ONSHAPE DOCUMENTS WITH NEW USERS

Onshape documents can easily be shared with anyone, even an individual that does not have an Onshape account. In our latest Tech Briefing we discuss best practices and avoiding pitfalls when sharing a document with a user that is new to Onshape. You can read the full tech briefing HERE.

USING PEM® FASTENERS

A few releases ago, we added PEM® Fasteners in Onshape Standard Content. Take a look at this new Tech Briefing on Using  PEM® Fasteners in Onshape Assemblies.

 

SECURITY AND IT CHECKLIST

Onshape addresses many security concerns compared to Old CAD. In this Tech Briefing, we discuss many of the security features that are built into Onshape, and some best practices you can take to keep your data safe.

UPDATES TO MANY TECH BRIEFINGS

Significant updates have been made to several existing Tech Briefings. Take a look at our Catalog.

TRAINING IMPROVEMENTS

RELEASE MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING

We've introduced a live, instructor-led training course on Administering Release Management and User Workflows.



For more info, and to sign-up, Click Here.




Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and leave your comments below. For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the changelog.

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new Documents and over the next few days these features will also be available in Documents created before the date of this update.

ilya_baran

There are also a few FeatureScript improvements, mostly thanks to @Anton_Bovin:

1. evRaycast is now available to shoot rays at topology in the context.
2. opSplitByIsocline will now let you split part faces into regions by normal angle relative to a given direction.  Can be useful for mold work and 3D printing.
3. Some bugfixes and improvements that let me write an experimental SuperDerive feature:
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfef86ed4f9635531599a973/v/0e8281b407ef15e08e1d2ade/e/305f5ce7d2fdb46e12881f6f
It's like derive, but adds an optional immediate boolean, multiple instances with implicit mate connectors, the ability to bring in variables from another part studio, and support for feature pattern apply-per-instance (if you want to pattern a derive with a varying configuration variable).  Please keep in mind that overuse can lead to heavy part studios -- use assemblies for real instancing.

Have fun!

emagdalenaC2i

Advanced search with custom properties... Love it!!

And thanks for this: Fixed issue with zip file translation with Spanish characters

Arcson

Really excited about updating drawing templates

bruce_williams

Search for a feature is great - helps us keep the toolbars simple; I love that if finds similar commands.  And Dynamic curvature - we just discussed yesterday in our engineering meeting....  wait a minute, is Onshape listening in?!    

Nice work team Onshape!

john_mcclary

Very nice!

Sheet format has been on my need list for a long time glad to check that one off the list

love what you did with chamfer callout, at first I was like, "Meh, we don't dimension in that style anyway" then you changed it to a dim with an angle! Now I can use it! sweet time saver

Also love your ordinate preview improvement, Ordinate jogs were always a pain in SW with the constant lock/unlock jog and a lot of messing about. I think Onshape now has a better Ordinate Dim system. Nicely done

Edit: 
also the feature search will come in handy, can't tell you how many times I clicked mirror while looking for split, and vice versa. 
Would be nice if it searched custom features (including those in-use in the part studio that are not linked to your toolbar)
IR: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/11394/search-features-to-include-custom-feature-scripts/p1?new=1

EvanReese

I'm super happy with this release! I love the auto-trim in loft and fill, and the curvature vis improvement a lot. I'm excited to see surfacing get better and better. I also love the search feature function, but I really wish that it would also search for custom features. That would probably my number 1 use for a search function. I know the functionality is fresh out of the oven, and this will probably be in a future update. Great work everyone!

bsquared

Very happy with this update! Not having a chamfer callout was annoying and I am so glad to see that it was implemented the onshape way. Really hoping center of mass tool comes soon!

john_mcclary

Evan_Reese said:

I really wish that it would also search for custom features. That would probably my number 1 use for a search function.

Add your vote: 
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/51635#Comment_51635

brucebartlett

A great new release, Thankyou!!  In drawings, the chamfer tool and sheet format updates will be put to use straight away, 2 things I have needed which have been a pain to work around, much appreciated to see them added in. 

wesmwatson

Nice to see a needed iOS improvement! 

Cache_River_Mill

This is excellent! Great work Onshape team!

bryan_lagrange

As always great update. I am crossing my fingers that we will see some new sheet metal feature improvements in the next update. Keep up the great work.

Davide_Cev

Evan_Reese said:

I'm super happy with this release! I love the auto-trim in loft and fill, and the curvature vis improvement a lot. I'm excited to see surfacing get better and better. I also love the search feature function, but I really wish that it would also search for custom features. That would probably my number 1 use for a search function. I know the functionality is fresh out of the oven, and this will probably be in a future update. Great work everyone!

  I'm with Evan!! If the search function could even look into custom features would be amazing. Onshape is getting always better and better!

brucebartlett

Yes, I agree with @Evan_Reese, search custom features in the users' toolbar would be very handy. It takes me a long time to find a feature I know is on my very bloated toolbar somewhere a search would make these super easy to find.

3dcad

Song_Yikun

Thanks!
1.  CLOUD LINE FOR REVISION
2. WEIGHT PORPERTY IN BOM
neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it badly. 

john_mcclary

As a pro user you can add weight to your bom. Create a custom property under your company and you should be set

Effendi_H

Excellent...thanks for update!

Alfian_Fuadi

Excellent...thanks for update! I can export DXF from part studio with correct metric dimension, but for export DXF of flat pattern sheet metal there still have some issue : bending line was lost eventough I tick all the option export as DXF/Drawing

dick_van_der_vaart

@Alfian_Fuadi
In draftsight the default setting is, bendinglines hidden, check the layers and make them show.

PeteYodis

@dick_van_der_vaart is correct, the content is still there but the layers are hidden in the exported DXF/DWG file.  We have a bug fix to make it so that bend center line and bend tangent layers are shown by default if you have chosen them in the export dialog.  

e_g_e

Thanks for this update!

One thing though: It would be nice if we could add prefixes or comments to the chamfer dimensioning tool. Like "Typ." or "4x", if the same chamfer is apparent multiple places on the same view.

Keep up the good work!

sebastian_glanzner

SWAP DRAWING SHEET FORMAT IN AN EXISTING ONSHAPE DRAWING

Very nice! 

owen_sparks

Now this is good !

@bradley_sauln Changing the configuration of a Part Studio used to be an event captured in the Document history. Now the configuration input values are part of the URL, allowing you to explicitly share a specific configuration setup by sending another user the URL of what you are seeing.

Owen S.

emagdalenaC2i

@owen_sparks
That was in the las release 

PER-USER CONFIGURATIONS

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/11239/improvements-to-onshape-march-1st-2019/p1

MBartlett21

@bradley_sauln Changing the configuration of a Part Studio used to be an event captured in the document history. Now the configuration input values are part of the URL, allowing you to explicitly share a specific configuration setup by sending another user the URL of what you are seeing.

Is there a possibility to auto-update the URL displayed in the browser address bar when changing configurations, rather than just generating a URL with the configuration when sharing a link.

owen_sparks

emagdalenaC2i said:

@owen_sparks
That was in the las release 

PER-USER CONFIGURATIONS

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/11239/improvements-to-onshape-march-1st-2019/p1

Thanks.  I'd not thought though implications on seeing the initial release.

Cheers,

Owen S.

jakeramsley

MBartlett21 said:

@bradley_sauln Changing the configuration of a Part Studio used to be an event captured in the document history. Now the configuration input values are part of the URL, allowing you to explicitly share a specific configuration setup by sending another user the URL of what you are seeing.

Is there a possibility to auto-update the URL displayed in the browser address bar when changing configurations, rather than just generating a URL with the configuration when sharing a link.

Hi MBartlett21,

This is something we've looked into and considered.  Unfortunately we found a bunch of unintended consequences of live-updating the URL that didn't make us comfortable with shipping it.  We will continue looking into how to make sharing and pointing users to a specific part as easy as possible.

Sujan_Patel

Chamfer annotation.....
Thanks.

Skippy

Nice to see new mobile improvements listed in here too.