Improvements to Onshape - July 17, 2015

lougallo

Another exciting update day is here and we have a number of highly requested features to tell you about today.  We hope you find many of these to be significant time savers on large operations as well as smaller, more common tasks.  Let's take a look!

Highlights include:

1. NEW Sketch text - Now you can add sketch text to your models!
   https://youtu.be/IgkPYz00z7k
   
2. Boolean operations in Mirror/Pattern tools.
   https://youtu.be/AJaqqe1rCFk
3. NEW Copy and paste of sketch entities (not just entire sketches).
   https://youtu.be/wDhvmJPjCHg
   
4. Comment tagging - add comments to the Feature list and directly in the graphics area. (New comments added while you are in the document will have a notification on the comment icon in the top header.) 
   https://youtu.be/6swes5CbIEU
   
5. Add Hollow option to the Shell command.
   https://youtu.be/05VamP3F-4I
   
6. NEW Surfacing visualization - (zebra striping for curvature continuity visualization)
   https://youtu.be/y0ISg86QNy0
   
7. Feature list now can filter by parts.
   
   
   
   
8. Offset Ellipse and remove diameter symbols
   
   
   

Honorable mentions:

• Changed fonts to match across all of Onshape (website, forum, Onshape)
• Refinement of tabs and measure area (responsive tab sizing to window, move measure into graphics area corner)
  
  
  
  
• Version graph filter:
  
  
  
• Invite and share to multiple users.
  
  
  

As always, we are interested in your feedback so go ahead and give them a try and leave a comment. We are already hard at work on the next wave of improvements so stay tuned.  Special thanks to @cody_armstrong for the videos!  ~Lou

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.

_Ðave_

Gr8 Updates. Thanks

eirikur

Interesting updates I think... the spinning wheel has taken over my project... cant get into any of my tabs... so I can't try them out

btw, why did you remove the 'move to first' / 'move to last' arrows in the bottom left corner?, in my case they were kinda handy

ilya_baran

@eirikur Please share the spinning wheel issue with support via "feedback" so we can investigate.

abefeldman

@eirikur  - we now allow scrolling with the mouse wheel in the tabs, but if you'd like to have those as well please send us a ticket on it.

Additionally, were you able to load your document?

nav

Its like xmas with OS every time they update the platform, thanks guys great work.

jordan_3

eirikur said:

why did you remove the 'move to first' / 'move to last' arrows in the bottom left corner?, in my case they were kinda handy

Try right clicking the left and right buttons to scroll far left and far right. You can also press and hold the navigation buttons to scroll at a constant speed  

raino_paananen

Nice to have the boolean operations in the mirror and pattern tools! The Zebra striping is a great addition also. Can't wait to get to try them out!

Thanks OS1
Raino

imagineered

Great to see the Zebra contouring - I wasn't aware this was available 

christopher_owens

Innovative!

michael3424

Those are some nice enhancements.  Are there any plans to allow a way fro text to follow a curve or circular feature entity?

3dcad

Great work, once again!

My favorites would be:
3. NEW Copy and paste of sketch entities (not just entire sketches).
4. Comment tagging - add comments to the Feature list and directly in the graphics area.
7. Feature list now can filter by parts.

Can't wait to give these proper test run..

For no7. I would like to popup a select list of possible search methods (type, part, name..) when writing ':' -mark in search box and when adding first letter suggest suitable method ie. ':p' writes ':part'

eirikur

abefeldman said:

@eirikur  - we now allow scrolling with the mouse wheel in the tabs, but if you'd like to have those as well please send us a ticket on it.

Additionally, were you able to load your document?

jordan_3 said:

eirikur said:

why did you remove the 'move to first' / 'move to last' arrows in the bottom left corner?, in my case they were kinda handy

Try right clicking the left and right buttons to scroll far left and far right. You can also press and hold the navigation buttons to scroll at a constant speed  

Gentlemen... I have over 200 tabs in my main project... Scrolling with the mouse wheel or right clicking the arrow won't get me very far...

I have to use the drop down list to move to the end tabs and I find that annoying compared to just clicking the end arrow

Abe, I was able to load the document but I'm still experiencing spinning wheels from time to time on what should be "light load" tabs. It isn't my computer and it isn't my university provided 100 mbs internet connection. It could have something to do with my abnormal project size though

pete_yodis

@eirikur 200 tabs.  I've been wondering about when that would happen.  I wonder if we need sub tabs, an ability to create a hierarchy of tabs...

3dcad

@eirikur  Can I ask why do you have 200+ tabs? Are they all parts/assemblies made in Onshape or import files + translations? What kind of filter/search/navigation would make you happy?

I have only ~10% of your tabs but I still find it difficult to navigate. And best thought I have came up is to have multiple vertical lists for different categories (PS, Assy, etc..)

pete_yodis

@3dcad I bet @eirikur has a rather large assembly.  Without inter document referencing this would be easy to do on more complicated products.

virendrasingh

@lougallo , All updates are nice. thank you.

3dcad

@pete_yodis I'm just curious since multi-part studios lowers the need for tabs signifigantly. Sub-assemblies take their space of course.. maybe we need multi-assembly tab where it would make sense to create more than one assembly in same tab.  

3dcad

eirikur said:

btw, why did you remove the 'move to first' / 'move to last' arrows in the bottom left corner?, in my case they were kinda handy

@abefeldman If you plan to bring these back, please don't use space from tabs (which I think was reason for removal). Instead a doubleclick would be a good way to move in the end.
I would also prefer having left arrow on left and right arrow on right side of the tabs, current location is like having both hands on left side of your body

Have you tried to open tab (megaburger) and + -menus with hover? I'm not sure if it would be annoying being so close to each other but I would like to reduce some clicks there.

What do others think?

jakeramsley

Right clicking on the left/right arrows should take you all the way to the first/last tab.  If that is not working properly, please submit feedback to support so that we can look into it.

pete_yodis

3dcad said:

@pete_yodis I'm just curious since multi-part studios lowers the need for tabs signifigantly. Sub-assemblies take their space of course.. maybe we need multi-assembly tab where it would make sense to create more than one assembly in same tab.  

@3dcad I'm not sure all Onshape users will be comfortable working in a top down methodology like you mention in a multi-part studio.  Some might prefer to work on parts/bodies in their own tab.  Currently you can't rev control a single body in a part studio, let alone the part studio separate from the rest of the document.  Right now the whole document gets versioned with every little change.  It's partly a different way of thinking, but it's also that way because of current limitations.  I think this will be important for customers that need explicit rev control of the bodies themselves.  Onshape hasn't released inter document referencing, which will give users options in these realms.  I don't know if they can do things like versioning single of bodies within a multi-part studio as well.  There is alot here in this realm...

christopher_quijano

@pete_yodis, you have expressed my concerns exactly. When I first started with OS the part studio was great and it was really easy to create designs. However, when I look at using this approach for work, the part studio falls apart. In SW I would do most of my initial design top down or in-context but as the design progressed I would go back and break all links and replace them with internal constraints. The only way around this right now it to create a single part per part studio and create a lot of tabs.

I am hoping when OS implements drawings that this will improve since drawing will tend to need more explicit rev control.

Ben_

Almost there to put it into my production environment. 

pete_yodis

christopher_quijano said:

@pete_yodis, you have expressed my concerns exactly. When I first started with OS the part studio was great and it was really easy to create designs. However, when I look at using this approach for work, the part studio falls apart. In SW I would do most of my initial design top down or in-context but as the design progressed I would go back and break all links and replace them with internal constraints. The only way around this right now it to create a single part per part studio and create a lot of tabs.

I am hoping when OS implements drawings that this will improve since drawing will tend to need more explicit rev control.

@christopher_quijano Check out my comments here...https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/6427#Comment_6427

Unless I haven't wrapped my mind around current functionality in Onshape, I think we will need additional capability in order for Onshape to be robust enough for formal engineered and rev controlled environments.  That additional capability could have a simplification effect on the number of tabs in a single document.  I could be wrong, but I think users will be asking for much more functionality here and I'm sure Onshape is very aware of it.  I have to keep telling myself that this is still Beta and Onshape is really just getting started.  There is so much promise with the platform they have architected.  Part of what we are seeing is the Agile way of bringing products about.  Onshape wants to make sure they are really catering to their customers needs, and not necessarily what they think their customers needs will be.  I think their Agile environment also extends to their technology partners and getting feedback on exactly how they need to consider how 3rd party products fit into the mix.  Certain pieces are needed first as the foundation before more can be added on top later.  It's a complicated animal, no doubt, but there really is a lot of promise if they can get it all right and if done right, then sooner rather than later.  Really good things.

eirikur

3dcad said:

@eirikur  Can I ask why do you have 200+ tabs? Are they all parts/assemblies made in Onshape or import files + translations? What kind of filter/search/navigation would make you happy?

I have only ~10% of your tabs but I still find it difficult to navigate. And best thought I have came up is to have multiple vertical lists for different categories (PS, Assy, etc..)

Yes, I have a lot of imports. I am working on a 3d printer and I have various lengths of extrudes, various lengths of screws and screw types, various nut sizes, many sub assemblies and so forth. (I don't even try to open my main assy on other computers than my super good home computer ).

As I have said to Lou, I am surprised that they removed the first/end arrow before they had any similar or better navigation tools in place. Why the hurry? They are very well aware of my project and it's scope since I shared it with them from the beginning

I still love Onshape and this is only a minor annoyance for me. I know they are working hard on improvements and better navigation will come. Since this was my first project in Onshape It's has some minor setup problems, like the fact that my main assemblies are to the far right instead of on the first tabs (no, I don't want to go through moving them to the left now). So I used the first /end arrows a lot.

Being able to group tabs, maybe hide tabs, search tabs or a better way to arrange them would be nice. 

edit:
Right clicking the arrows to get to the first/end tab solves my problem quite nicely, thank you

billy2

Pete- I agree with you about assemblies and feel this is the one area that needs improvement. I don't know where to create a layout for my designs and every attempt I've made to work a project in OS I feel like I'm watching a pingpong match bouncing from assemblies to part studios. I just feel that OS gets in my way and makes designing in the assembly difficult.

I really like the rest of OS. I think I could manage 50% of my projects in OS if the assemblies were just a little more productive.

I keep watching the updates looking for assembly enhancements, and I'm disappointed each time there's a release and this isn't addressed.

 

pete_yodis

@billy yeah, the part studio and assembly studio are definitely not fleshed out enough at the moment for my liking.  I feel stuck in a netherland at times without being able to import other part studio bodies into another part studio.  There are too many workarounds needed with the current limitations.  I know Onshape is working on interdocument and hopefully intradocument referencing.  I think those could go a long way.  Again, I think we are seeing the results of an Agile process at work.  I'm patient because I see the huge potential here, especially from someone who oversees a vault of 83,000+ CAD files.

tarek_mustafa

Hi Onshape team, those are really great updates! I specially like the text and copy feature. Great work!

andrew_troup

Nice updates. I'm happy to see the "nuanced" improvements, like font consistency, being fostered alongside the "bells and whistles" of the big ticket items. Not for nothing did Apple finally break through to the big time with this ethos (although it did take decades! Nevertheless it marked them out, from the earliest Mac/Liza era)

A subtle nuance, which I mention only because I imagine it would be trivial to fix: there is STILL a strangeness about the implementation of italics in forum posts. When you preview a mixture of plain and italic text, the font size is the same, but when you post the comment, the height of the italic text is increased. At best it looks untidy, and at worst, it unduly emphasises what may be intended only as an "aside".

The added prominence means that italic tends to trespass more on the territory of "bold".

It's a lot better than it was, as described in https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/985/formatting-of-forum-posts. It used to be that italic inevitably invoked italic bold (not in the preview, which has always behaved correctly)

But in the interests of simplicity. straightforwardness and true WYSIWYG, I hope that this remaining wrinkle might get ironed sometime soon.

andrew_troup

The same seems to apply to bold text: it behaves as it should in preview, but becomes taller (and distractingly prominent as a result) when the comment is posted. I hesitate to raise such trivial points, and only do so in the hope that a fix would be proportionately trivial.

3dcad

I would like to see also underline for highlighting with less pressure than bold.