Improvements to Onshape - February 17th, 2020

david_ruggles

Colored Sections and Exploded Views are awesome!  Thank you!

john_hauck

Love. Just love.

jdbarocio

Great! Thank you. No more workarounds to create exploded views. Keep it shining...

Michael_Coffee

Exploded View and Recursive Updates are huge improvements for us. I will be looking forward to trying them out

With regard to the "Pin Reference" feature, does this also apply in a similar manner to having the model in a drawing? As we make versions of our configured models, the drawings will prompt to say "Hey, this needs updated", but we didn't modify the specific configuration it uses. At the moment, we are not using releases, which would fix the issue, but until then, we mostly just keep going, as it doesn't interfere with using the model. While not necessary to make versions and definitely not needed once releases are involved, having the option would be nice. If not, oh well

Either way, I'm happy with these new improvements and will be looking forward to see more ground-breaking features in the future.

adam_geary

Man, that exploded view update is huge!  With the built in explode feature tree and rollback bar, this seems better than any exploded view tool I've ever used.  Nice work!

Cache_River_Mill

These are fantastic improvements. Thank you Onshape team!

We will be using these immediately.

emagdalenaC2i

Great improvements!!!

soporteC2i

Awesome update

soporteC2i

Love the new sketch inferencing

Ketil_Volland_Private

This is an awesome update. The exploded view is a HUGE step towards productivity enhancement. One that I have been waiting for. The way of using arrows on the rollback bar, should also be added to the rollback bar in partstudios. 

albjerre

Great improvements. The top 4 new features are all very useful. 

J_Fitch

Thank you, thank you for this update! We have been waiting a long time for Exploded Views and the new sketch inference is a very welcome addition as well. Now, on the the advanced sheet metal feature updates! Thanks guys!

steven_elliott555

Exploded Views ! Another "must have" crossed off the list.  Nice work on developing this tool.

john_mcclary

Sweet! Shade views in sections and crops yeay!

Nice job with exploded views.

Gonna give the linked document thing another try I see lol, hope it sticks this time.

Sketch Inference... now everywhere... hmm..  So much for adding an on the fly mate connector to bypass inferences. Please add a toggle button to turn SI on and off then

Henk_de_Vlaam

john_mcclary said:

[...] Please add a toggle button to turn SI on and off then

Press Shift during sketching. Is this what you mean?

NeilCooke

@john_mcclary - one advantage of using mate connectors is that the model face is not being imprinted (i.e. the face is not copied into the sketch to make references) - this improves performance on complex models. Now you have the best of both worlds as long as you don't mind pressing Shift.

bruce_williams

@NeilCooke
Great points about options with Mate Connectors & avoiding imprinting.  And those little guys are versatile!  I have long missed the symbols in the old Camax CAD.  Although the symbols had the advantage of being automatic, Mate Connectors are way more useful.   Sketch Inferences are really good improvement.

NeilCooke

I just used sketch inferences for the first time by accident. I was sketching a revolved shape and the sketch from the previous revolve was visible and it snapped to it and I was like, wait... what just happened? SO COOL.

owen_sparks

NeilCooke said:

I just used sketch inferences for the first time by accident. I was sketching a revolved shape and the sketch from the previous revolve was visible and it snapped to it and I was like, wait... what just happened? SO COOL.

Yeah. Noice.

Did you sneak some of this functionality in over time?  I swear a month or so ago I was able to infer sketch geometry that wasn't previously possible.

Owen S.

john_mcclary

Henk_de_V said:

john_mcclary said:

[...] Please add a toggle button to turn SI on and off then

Press Shift during sketching. Is this what you mean?

You can turn off all automatic constraints if you hold shift while sketching. That way you don't accidentally make your line horizontal to some random point.

I used to just add a mate connector when I didn't want inferences mucking up my current sketch.

@NeilCooke I'm not saying sketch inferences are bad.. they are great when you WANT them, and super annoying when you DON'T. Adding the mate connector or construction plane work arounds don't work anymore. It would be better if we could toggle the ability to wake up entities outside of the current sketch. A check box on the sketch window under show constraints would be perfect.

john_hauck

I found that adding mate connectors for the X, Y, and Z orientations (I put them at the origin) in the assembly that I am exploding makes it easier to specify an explode direction. This is especially needed if most parts do not have flat surfaces, or if parts get swapped in and out depending on configuration.

Paul_J_Premakumar

One can also drag the explode triad(using the ball) to the origin and pick the axis, you want to explode along. The triad can also be dragged onto other entities such as faces and edges to give you greater control over the explode direction.

bruce_williams

@Paul_J_Premakumar

Great tips!  Question - the Triad does not appear if the dialog is kept open with Shift Enter.  Is that by intent? 

I see the workflow is to accept each step with Enter (closes the dialog) then select another part which displays the Triad.

I have gotten used to Shift Enter; this is a bit different.

john_hauck

Paul_J_Premakumar said:

One can also drag the explode triad(using the ball) to the origin and pick the axis, you want to explode along. The triad can also be dragged onto other entities such as faces and edges to give you greater control over the explode direction.

Crafty!
Maybe someday I can just type "X". (<== not joke)
Or perhaps Right Ascension and Declination, or Altitude and Azimuth. (<== joke)

bruce_williams

bradley_sauln said:

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.

@bradley_sauln
This is a very flexible work flow.  For View Only Documents:  The Named views is in View Cube and Exploded is in the Simple View Only Toolbar.  HOWEVER - I do not see 'Display States' available on a view only document.  Or am I missing it?  The new explode function begets having all three of these functions in the View Only Toolbar.  

Paul_J_Premakumar

bruce_williams said:

@Paul_J_Premakumar

Great tips!  Question - the Triad does not appear if the dialog is kept open with Shift Enter.  Is that by intent? 

I see the workflow is to accept each step with Enter (closes the dialog) then select another part which displays the Triad.

I have gotten used to Shift Enter; this is a bit different.

Hello Bruce,

  Yes, that is by intent. The explode triad isn't active when the dialog is open. The Shift+Enter command closes the current dialog and opens another dialog of the same type. 

   If you  want to make successive explode steps with the same set of occurrences, using Enter instead of Shift + Enter would be the way to go. For example: drag along X, Enter, drag along X, Enter, drag along Z, Enter

BMcGaffey

Amazing updates! This is big-leap update that will really help us with our Parts Catalog creation. 

Mehul_Gala

EXPLODED VIEWS!!! This is a HUGE help for us. We work with a lot of supplier models and would 're-mate' all the import geometry and then make an assembly configuration with offsets to create an exploded assembly view.  Now (!) we can just throw a group mate on the imported geometry and create an exploded view. This will save a LOT of time for us.

Thanks for the hard work on this one!!

3dcad

Awesome update!

And great to hear animations are already in the tube..

One thing to add for us struggling in area between printed/pdf drawings and view sharing; we need to get images into external software for assembly instructions. It is ease to take screenshots but updating images is a pain. Named views help but if I could have a link to live snapshot of a named view that would be huge.

I mean that Onshape would automatically create https://cad.onshape.com/documents/4f85357e894365798rehg98e54.png for me and I could copy the link to another software or webpage as link to image. This image link would be always live snapshot of a named view.

It could have it's own share permission or be tied to link sharing. 

I can already see so many use cases for such functionality that I wen't ahead and created improvement request for voting:
https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/13098/live-snapshot-image-link-to-model/

don_williams909

Anything on the horizon for being able to change color / texture of individual part surfaces?  How about adding artwork to a surface?
Thanks. 

Onshape Rocks!