Improvements to Onshape - August 20th, 2019

Ryan_Almeida

The updates just keep coming!  Incredible set of updates per usual.

Cache_River_Mill

This is possibly one my favorite updates yet!

Thank you very much Onshape team!

This is why we love Onshape, excellent innovation.

owen_sparks

Forgive me not testing this (breakfast burger takes priority) but does / should an instance count of zero delete the entity?

Owen S.

NeilCooke

owen_sparks said:

Forgive me not testing this (breakfast burger takes priority) but does / should an instance count of zero delete the entity?

Owen S.

No because a pattern requires a seed which is already present. 

owen_sparks

NeilCooke said:

owen_sparks said:

Forgive me not testing this (breakfast burger takes priority) but does / should an instance count of zero delete the entity?

Owen S.

No because a pattern requires a seed which is already present. 

Hi Neil.

Yes, that's my point :-) 

If we're talking patterning via a configuration, then we model the seed and configure the instances of it. 

In the video example the span was narrow enough that no extra instances were needed so an instance of 1 left the single seed in place.  That's good. 

Now what if the span were so narrow that no center beam was required?  My proposal in this case has us select the seed in the pattern as normal, set the configuration pattern count to zero, which results in the seed being deleted.  That way there's no need to suppress the original seed via a separate config.

Does that make sense?

Owen S.

NeilCooke

It does and it would make configs easier to manage in those instances (pun not intended), especially since we can’t suppress using logic yet. IR. 

owen_sparks

Oh, yes, great point. 

Config pattern count = FLOOR(myExression) == 0 could be very useful

O.S.

Jake_Rosenfeld

@owen_sparks

This is something we considered during implementation, and decided was not within the scope of the project.  It is doable, though, and I am glad you brought it up so that we know users are interested in such a thing!

Please create an IR.

owen_sparks

@Jake_Rosenfeld, thanks and Wilco.

Mazie_Houchens

Super Awesome update, you guys are wizards!

ChuckKey

Ahah! Wrap finally solves the problem of correctly modelling a milled face cam, I thought. I have been looking forward to that since I encountered and discussed the problem in Dec 2015. Unfortunately I am not so sure now. A wrapped surface is thickened radially, but a parallel milling cutter of non-zero diameter, presented radially, does not mill radial surfaces. Wrap may help here, but I think correct modelling may be difficult instead of impossible.

bill_daniels

ChuckKey (Like that handle) I have done a lot of research related to barrel cams in the last few years.  I've found they're not something one can model easily in CAD.  I've been forced to turn to specialist cam making shops who have specialized cam design programs which output g-files suitable for their CNC machines.  I tell them what I want the cam to do and they develop a 3D model for me to test.

don_williams909

These are some nice, and very useful updates!

That said, I still need to have a cleaner Instances Tree in Assemblies.  The ability to have a folder-type structure for all the parts and sub-assemblies would make for less scrolling and an easier to use Tree.

Also, I would like to see Mates for parts and assemblies be related specifically to those parts via a pop-out window or something other than being in the Assembly Mates section.  If those mates aren't in the same Tree structure, then again less scrolling to do, and less annoyance. 
Please leave the Instances Tree free from Mates...!

owen_sparks

Is it nearly the 41st of August?

Owen S.

NeilCooke

@owen_sparks your patience will be rewarded soon enough. 

owen_sparks

Thanks Yoda.

Jake_Rosenfeld

Release an update, we will

owen_sparks

Outstanding

StephenG

Late comment...

This update included the capability to select/define a mate connector to establish the sketch plane. No mention of this capability in this announcement. Had dig through the change log to find it.

Furthermore, the significance of this capability is not fully flushed out in the on line help. The significance is important because it addresses performance issues when selecting a face with many edges and selecting profiles for creating lofts and sweeps. The normal behavior is make all edges of a face "available" for inference during sketching. If there many edges on the selected face it can impact interactive sketch performance. Also having "interface" edges available complicates selection of profiles in lofts and sweeps. 

Prior to this release the only solution was to first create a plane (with and offset of 0) and then create/start the sketch using the plane and then explicitly "Use" the edges required to complete the sketch. Now it possible to also select a preexisting mate connector, but more importantly an implicit mate connector can be also be created within the open sketch dialogue.          

 

NeilCooke

StephenG said:

Late comment...

This update included the capability to select/define a mate connector to establish the sketch plane. No mention of this capability in this announcement. Had dig through the change log to find it.

Furthermore, the significance of this capability is not fully flushed out in the on line help. The significance is important because it addresses performance issues when selecting a face with many edges and selecting profiles for creating lofts and sweeps. The normal behavior is make all edges of a face "available" for inference during sketching. If there many edges on the selected face it can impact interactive sketch performance. Also having "interface" edges available complicates selection of profiles in lofts and sweeps. 

Prior to this release the only solution was to first create a plane (with and offset of 0) and then create/start the sketch using the plane and then explicitly "Use" the edges required to complete the sketch. Now it possible to also select a preexisting mate connector, but more importantly an implicit mate connector can be also be created within the open sketch dialogue.          

 

@StephenG - this is one of my most favourite features, especially for creating compound or offset sketch planes. You make a good point about performance and usability. It was released March 1st, 2019 - please see the third video here:
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/11239/improvements-to-onshape-march-1st-2019/p1

EDIT: actually, you're right - after watching the video again it does not mention sketch planes - negligent

bradley_sauln

@StephenG I also created a tech tip on some ways to take advantage of this along with a few other updates to sketches here: https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/tech-tip-sketching-with-mate-connectors

fnxf_scewo

StephenG said:

Prior to this release the only solution was to first create a plane (with and offset of 0) and then create/start the sketch using the plane and then explicitly "Use" the edges required to complete the sketch. Now it possible to also select a preexisting mate connector, but more importantly an implicit mate connector can be also be created within the open sketch dialogue.     

@StephenG I also think this feature deserves a big shout-out. I was just recently made aware of this feature by way of the always helpful @TimRice - and since then it has saved me many times from doing unnecessary work. And it keeps the feature tree clean- that's a bonus!

ilya_baran

@StephenG
@NeilCooke

Creating a sketch on a mate connector was actually released a year prior and mentioned then: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/9963/improvements-to-onshape-august-20th-2018

Summer intern project, BTW!

NeilCooke

ilya_baran said:

@StephenG
@NeilCooke

Creating a sketch on a mate connector was actually released a year prior and mentioned then: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/9963/improvements-to-onshape-august-20th-2018

Summer intern project, BTW!

Touché. That's what happens when I'm not involved in What's New anymore. I now understand how difficult it is for customers to keep up!

StephenG

@bradley_sauln

A most excellent written Tech-Tip; one of the best I have ever read. I get the sense the impetus for writing the Tech Tip was to address frequent user problems which are solved by creating sketch plane using an MC. 

I went back and checked my e-mail to see if received notice of its publication; yes I did, but I doubt if I actually read thoroughly. I already knew it was possible to select a MC to establish a sketch plane, but completely missed the point about how it creates a local coordinate system (CS) making it possible to establish a Horizontal and Vertical different from the global CS. This certainly improves sketch robustness and reusability. My reason for using a MC to create a sketch was not performance, or wanting to have a local CS for the sketch geometry, but to make it easy to select/define a loft profile on a part face with a lots of edges.  

I would like to comment on finding Tech Tips write ups; they are difficult to find after their initial publication. My normal process for finding definitive information about an Onshape function is to use On-line Help. The process to re access Tech Tips is not very direct: Help -> Webinars -> Blog -> Tech Tips. The large thumbnails make it cumbersome to find/scroll through for the Tech Tip of interest. The Search filter wasn't much help; filtering with "sketch" does not list your 3/30/2020 Tech Tip: Sketching with Mate Connectors. Someone dropped the ball entering metadata for the search/filter.

I am also finding On-line Help not the helpful. It has become a blend of reference info and instructional content; what I need is pure reference information on a specific Onshape UI function in the context of using it when clarity about the function is needed. The reference info can and should contain links to pertinent instructional content and Tech Tip write-ups like yours which contain more in depth information.

Again, excellent Tech-Tip; I will make it a point to read everything you write.  

bradley_sauln

@StephenG Glad we can be of help! I more than anyone understands the difficulty of finding the right information since we have several main spaces for you to search. Blog, Tech Tips, the learning center which includes Technical Briefings, etc. We have a larger initiative to create a central repository to make searching all of these easier but I do not know of any dates or timelines for it quite yet.

Just so you know some of the inner workings of the documentation we create: the tech team typically makes Tech Tips to dive deeper into something that was a part of a What's New post/release or if we are working with an Onshape user and discover that there is not sufficient documentation that expands upon the use cases of features and a deeper explanation beyond the help index. When working with customers on workflows, migration or strategy around using Onshape for a company we will create Technical Briefings (basically white papers) that are located in the learning center that will expand on these strategies.