Improvements to Onshape - February 17th, 2020

bradley_sauln · February 2020

We come to you in the middle of February with a big update involving highly-requested features. Let's dig in and as always, we look forward to your feedback.

CAD IMPROVEMENTS

EXPLODED VIEWS

You can now create exploded views within Onshape Assemblies and Drawings.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/3og8mwxk4j

RECURSIVE LINKED DOCUMENT UPDATES

This update will be rolled out to users over time and was previously seen as two 'What's New' listings for updating all external references and improvements to updating linked documents.

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

DRAWING SHADED VIEW IMPROVEMENTS

You can now enable shaded views of drawing section cuts, crop views, and views with broken out sections.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/tpe1tv3em7

SKETCH INFERENCING IMPROVEMENTS

When sketching in Onshape you can now infer to any geometry in the plane of the active sketch, including existing sketches. Previously you could only infer to geometry that was part of the face being sketched on.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/dvuwp6vtku

NEW USER ONBOARDING IMPROVEMENTS

The password creation page has been redesigned for the account activation process of first-time users. New users, vendors, and suppliers that you start to collaborate with inside Onshape will begin to see an improvement in the account set up process.

ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENTS

IMPROVEMENTS TO RELEASE SETTINGS

You can now override the company release settings for a custom workflow within Onshape Enterprise. There is a new JSON section for custom release workflows called “options” that allows you to override release settings such as the release conditions that would prevent a release from being created. You can also specify which revision scheme is active for the custom workflow selected. Under the revision scheme section of the company settings, there is a new field to copy the revision scheme id to use for this setting. More information on setting up custom workflows can be found in the Onshape Enterprise help documentation.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/lii41p9oq5

MOBILE IMPROVEMENTS

ADVANCED DOCUMENT SEARCH

Searching from the documents list in iOS now allows filtering by properties and 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.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/orh6sujqw5

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: With the exception of Recursive Linked Documents, 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.

jakeramsley · February 2020

The roll out for the "Recursive Linked Document Updates" functionality is different than any we've had in the past. This is a result of the original performance concerns that led us to disable the functionality. This post is to clarify what this rollout looks like, what to expect, and what has been done to prevent further complications.

Back in November of last year, we released the "Recursive Linked Document Updates" functionality which resulted in a heavy load onto our system. We felt that the performance was unacceptable and it was better to disable the functionality rather than trying to work quickly to correct it. After a review of what occurred, we decided that our approach to releasing the functionality was to:

1) Decouple the UI from some of the background work which was the culprit for the high load.

2) Progressively rollout the "high load" aspect of the functionality silently, disable it if any issues arose from it, and make tweaks along the way.

3) Run in the configuration of all users siliently using the intensive aspect of the functionality for a period of time to monitor performance during varying amounts of load

4) Progressively rollout the functionality to all users

Currently, we are not seeing any performance issues as a result of the background task. At this time we are ready to rollout the functionality to users. A couple things to note about this rollout:

• Only a subset of users will see this functionality to start. The set of users with the functionality enabled are chosen randomly. The selection is in no way, shape, or form tied to subscription, company, or anything else.

• As usage stabilizes and no concerns appear, we will continue to add users to the functionality until it is enabled for all users.

• The rollout schedule will be independent of the release schedule and no timetable will be given for when additional users are added. We take the approach "it is ready when it is ready" and will enable it for additional users when we deem the functionality ready.

This is a unique case resulting in a unique rollout. It is not something we currently plan to do for any other functionality, however, it is a possibility.

Prachi · February 2020

Woo Hoo. Nice round of updates.

alnis · February 2020

This update is awesome! I am really excited to have exploded views in assemblies. All of the other features also look fantastic and super useful. Now I'll really have trouble not procrastinating on non-CAD stuff this week...

Effendi_H · February 2020

Wow... Exploded Views Finally!!! Thanks so much Dev Team! Cheers....

brucebartlett · February 2020

Great news to see exploded views, this will be a huge time saver for me!

CircleTect · February 2020

Being able to reference any point or line in a sketch not on the primary face is huge.

Also, exploded diagrams are something I use ALL the time. I have many duplicate assemblies to make exploded diagrams, but then when I make updates to the design I had to create a completely new exploded diagram assembly and re-create the drawing.

These two changes will save hundreds of hours. Thanks guys.

Theo_R · February 2020

Thank you for the exploded views!
Inferencing and recursive links are also welcome changes.

romeograham · February 2020

Nice work folks! Updates are always excellent - but this one is extra excellent. Exploded views are a big update.

gerhard_swanepoel · February 2020

Great updates!

otaolafr · February 2020

SKETCH INFERENCING IMPROVEMENTS? EXPLOTED VIEWS? greeeeat work guys!!! the inferencing improvements will be super handy!

as always love this software! thanks for the hard work!

sebastian_glanzner · February 2020

I like the shaded views improvement, thanks!

mechanical_cad · February 2020

Wow, this is the best update from a long time ago. Exploded views and Sketch inferencing are great. I hope you will add a parametric options for exploded views. Distance is a must. Thank you!

GuidoNADEC · February 2020

Exploded views and shaded section views. Thanks!!

owen_sparks · February 2020

Wow.

(1 Exploded Views)

The implementation of exploded views brings back memories of configurations being released. I imagine a list of what the minimum viable functionality is and then onshape devs saying something like "We can do a whole lot better than that!". I was expecting/hoping for/would have been happy with, something that took a stab at exploding the assembly automatically which we'd then have to edit manually when it inevitably didn't behave exactly as we expected. This is so much more. THANK YOU.

OK the inevitable question. (Please a take it as a compliment that the user wants more.) Will we be able to step through and or animate the explosion? This has the potential to bring assembly instructions into the 21st century. Bring it on

(2 Linked docs)

The reinstated functionality is great, as is the transparent method you've used to reintroduce it, kudos there. But can we take a moment to consider one new feature that is somewhat buried in the presentation? Assemblies are now "aware" of updates in multi level structures! That's awesome and breaths life back into a project I abandoned because this functionality didn't exist at the time.

Please forgive my previous petty winging on insignificant issues. You've clearly been hard at work

Cheers,

Owen S.

Edit, honorable mention to sketch inferencing. If that were the only improvement I took away from this update I'd have been a happy chap.

Song_Yikun · February 2020

Exploded View-Make Me Crazy

and With more and more features added, onshape changed from light blue to dark blue, and we are all witnesses!

NeilCooke · February 2020

mechanical_cad said:

I hope you will add a parametric options for exploded views. Distance is a must. Thank you!

The distance is a value in the explode step dialog that can also be configured. Are you looking for something more?

mechanical_cad · February 2020

NeilCooke said:

mechanical_cad said:

I hope you will add a parametric options for exploded views. Distance is a must. Thank you!

The distance is a value in the explode step dialog that can also be configured. Are you looking for something more?

I am sorry, I missed it. Thank you!

NeilCooke · February 2020

owen_sparks said:

Will we be able to step through and or animate the explosion?

You can step through now using the cursor/arrow keys and rollback bar (2:37 in video), but it is manual. Animations, explode lines and many more capabilities are in the pipeline.

owen_sparks · February 2020

NeilCooke said:

owen_sparks said:

Will we be able to step through and or animate the explosion?

You can step through now using the cursor/arrow keys and rollback bar (2:37 in video), but it is manual. Animations, explode lines and many more capabilities are in the pipeline.

Thanks Neil, you guys Rock!

Owen S.

AlexPitt · February 2020

Fantastic updates! Thank you Onshape team! Looks like a great implementation of Exploded Views! The Recursive update auto-versioning nested sub-assemblies is a wonderful thing! And very grateful for shaded section views too!

chand_basha · February 2020

Great to see Exploded Views, Sketch Inferencing and Shaded View of sections.

EricGauthier · February 2020

The best update in 2020! Great job guys!

bruce_williams · February 2020

Good one! Exploded views and Sketch Inferencing will make things so much smoother. Thanks Team Onshape.

Ryan_Almeida · February 2020

BEST UPDATES YET! Incredible round of updates! Worth the wait on the exploded views. Such nice features within exploded views (configurations! states!)

don_williams909 · February 2020

Exploded views! Finally! Woo-HOO ! ! !

Will there be explode lines available as well at some point?

bradley_sauln · February 2020

A great thing to keep in mind when thinking about your technical documentation is that the Explode view can be shared/seen across view only links, just like a lot of other aspects to Onshape.

One thing to consider taking advantage of is the following workflow:

1) Display States to hide casings or specific parts not necessary for the steps or instructions
2) Named views (from the secondary view cube) to set the proper viewing angle to capture the correct visual information
3) An exploded-view that takes advantage of 1+2 to then be utilized in drawings or for a 3D visualization.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/b0/497slpq16455.png

NeilCooke · February 2020

Thanks @bradley_sauln - I knew I'd forgotten something in my 6 minute video!

PeteYodis · February 2020

don_williams909 said:

Exploded views! Finally! Woo-HOO ! ! !

Will there be explode lines available as well at some point?

@do@don_williams909 There will be explode lines at some point. We know these are important, but just getting out explode for our customers was a big deal.

Len_Wanger · February 2020

Great update! Exploded views are huge for us! Can't wait to get recursive updates back too.

Jer_Weav · February 2020

Been waiting a long time for Exploded Views! Thank you Onshape!