Improvements to Onshape - July 31st 2020

Roy_Mutalik

Our second release this month comes with a few features we hope will delight you. Let's take a look.

MASS PROPERTIES IMPROVEMENTS

You can now override the mass, center of mass, and mass moments of inertia of a part in the Part Studio. Simply check the "Override" box in the mass properties dialog and enter the new value. A new indicator for the center of mass is now shown in the graphics. The mass of a top-level assembly and composite part can also be overridden. 

You can also now create materials with a custom density and apply them to parts on the fly using the new "custom" tab in the material dialog. These materials can be shown in the BOM and referenced in a drawing.

 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/8heu7cw4tc?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

HIDE ALL FROM PARTS LIST

You can now hide all parts, surfaces, curves, or meshes in a single click in the parts list.

 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/9vtbnlwszb?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

EDIT PROPERTIES OF A PART FROM AN ASSEMBLY

You may now view and edit part-level properties directly from the assembly.

 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/0bb5bib3s2?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

You can also edit the properties of the sub-assembly itself by right-clicking it in the instance list.

VARIABLES RENAME EVERYWHERE

When renaming a variable, you now have the option to automatically update the name of the variable everywhere it is used.

 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/u4wpv7zyf0?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

SECTION VIEW FROM CONTEXT MENU

You can now activate a section view from the right-click context menu of any plane, planar surface, cylindrical face, or mate connector.

RENAME DOCUMENTS IN-LINE 

Documents are now renamed in-line from the Documents page.

Release Management Improvements

PART NUMBER PROPAGATES TO WORKSPACE ON RELEASE FROM VERSION

A new Release Management option has been introduced to allow you to control if part numbers should propagate to a workspace when releasing from a version. 

 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/gemgz4i7hd?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640

This propagation setting is referring to the number of workspaces directly above the version you are releasing from. The image below shows another example of a branched history.

• With "Never" selected, the part number will only be written in the version that is released.
• With "One Workspace" selected, releasing V1 will not propagate to Main or B1, as there are two workspaces above that version. However, releasing V2 will propagate the part number to B1.
• With "All Workspaces" selected, releasing V1 will propagate the part number to both Main and B1. Releasing V2 with this option would only propagate to B1.

Learning Center Improvements

INTRODUCTION TO SURFACING SELF-PACED COURSE

A new course, Introduction to Surfacing, has been added to the Learning Center to provide a fundamental understanding of surface modeling in Onshape. This course explores getting started with basic surfacing features to create complex part geometry.




This course is available to Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Educational subscriptions.

Onshape Educational Plan Improvements

INTRODUCING: ONSHAPE EDUCATION ENTERPRISE

Onshape’s Education plans are the only CAD education platforms that fully support remote learning and teaching on any device, from any location, with zero IT footprint.

A new edition of Onshape is now available designed specifically for education institutions. Onshape Education Enterprise includes features to allow schools and universities to easily manage permissions, control access, and understand activity and analytics in a tool designed specifically for students and educators. 

It is important to note that Onshape's zero-cost Education Standard product, used by thousands of schools every day, will continue to exist with no changes. Education Enterprise is a premium edition available to organizations looking to solve these unique administrative needs at scale.

For more information on Education Enterprise, take a look at the Introducing Onshape Education Enterprise blog post, and please share it with any local schools or education programs you know of that may benefit from it!

FeatureScript Improvements

CUSTOM FEATURE DESCRIPTIONS AND TOOLTIPS

You can now set a description for your custom features, useful for capturing the features' purpose and workflow. This description is visible when hovering over the custom feature in the toolbar, as well as in the Feature Search (activated by Alt + C).



You can also add parameter tooltips, visible by hovering over a field while using the custom feature.


Further documentation on these features is available 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.

james_close

Updating Variables made that capability manageable.  Great move !
Custom Material , Section View, Edit Properties, Hide All are immediately useful to all users.
Nice Job !

john_mcclary

access part properties from the assembly tree. Lol I was just thinking about that yesterday .. well played Onshape..


Whew... if release management wasn't confusing enough lol....

EvanReese

🎉 Updating variable names 🎉 amazing! 
So many little pain points I've had just went away. edit part properties from anywhere, center of mass, variable names (again), hide the "surfaces" folder. thanks!

john_mcclary said:

Whew... if release management wasn't confusing enough lol....

I'm with you, John. I'm not sure what to make of this new decision I didn't know I needed to make. It's like a skydiving instructor asking what style of chute I'd like. I don't care to choose, I just want to live. Anyone care to explain the nuances?

Ed_McGuire

Awesome mass props improves! 

Ben_Tek_Pac

Mass properties improvements are great, BUT, I still can't get mass to show on drawing. Please Onshape, get this to happen! It would save me a lot of time transferring the weight from the model to the drawing and then having to update every time there is a change.
Would also be great if the custom material was added to the library so it can be used for other parts and in other documents.
Hide all parts is excellent, I will be using this!
Edit Properties of part from assembly is awsome
Variable rename everywhere, this has been a frustration, this is a great improvement!

MBartlett21

Mass properties is good. However, the custom material is not too nice. It wants to know the density in kilograms per millimetre cubed! As an example, this is 0.000007850 for steel. It would be nicer if the input allowed specifying the units, rather than just a blank number.

The mass and center of gravity editing on the mass properties is really good!

The variables and FeatureScript description improvements are also very useful.

john_mcclary

You can upload your own custom materials from a csv file in your company settings.
This improvement just lets you do it on the fly.

As a band-aide while we wait for Onshape, you can also create a custom feature that sets the mass to a part and sets it to a custom property to be displayed in a drawing. I have one I can send your way if you want it. @Ben_Tek_Pac

Unfortunately you will still need to fill in the mass manually for assemblies ... Onshape really does need to address this issue. It is quite annoying to be honest. 

fnxf

Those are great improvements! So many small issues, but so important nonetheless. Definitely going to set part number propagation to "All Workspaces"- although it's a bit confusing that releasing V2 won't propagate to Main, but thinking it through, merging will take care of that.

@Evan_Reese releasing is complicated, no way around it. This update makes sure that when you create a release from an already existing version (a feature that was introduced a little while back), which probably didn't have a part number at that point, that this part number will be applied to the part in the workspace too, and not only that version.

And @Roy_Mutalik- I am really happy about these two:

1. Fixed an issue where drawings history shows thumbnail event
2. Fixed behavior to open a consistent tab when using “Open workspace” from documents list

Ben_Tek_Pac

john_mcclary said:

You can upload your own custom materials from a csv file in your company settings.
This improvement just lets you do it on the fly.

As a band-aide while we wait for Onshape, you can also create a custom feature that sets the mass to a part and sets it to a custom property to be displayed in a drawing. I have one I can send your way if you want it. @Ben_Tek_Pac

Unfortunately you will still need to fill in the mass manually for assemblies ... Onshape really does need to address this issue. It is quite annoying to be honest. 

I have my own custom material list but seems there is always a new material that needs adding and it is a bit of a process. Morgan has given me his FS but it only works on professional subscription with custom properties. He is going to update so I can use TITLE 1 Hopefully Onshape will sort one day.

john_mcclary

I saw the 'pro' next to your name, I assumed you had a pro seat

EvanReese

fnxf said:

@Evan_Reese releasing is complicated, no way around it. This update makes sure that when you create a release from an already existing version (a feature that was introduced a little while back), which probably didn't have a part number at that point, that this part number will be applied to the part in the workspace too, and not only that version.

We use the release workflow, and I generally think it's great. I set ours to "All Workspaces" right away too, because that made the most sense for us, but I'm not seeing a scenario where an org would want the other options. The fact that they are there anyway tells me I'm probably missing something.

tim_hess427

@Evan_Reese - I remember seeing an example document showing Branches used to document different stages of manufacturing. So, one branch could be a cast part, but then another branch could include subsequent machining operations. I think this is one case where you'd want different part numbers used in the workspaces on different branches.

Another scenario could be if two branches have different design approaches that both need to be tested. In some places, these would both need part numbers to order the prototypes and track them through procurement and testing, even if one is never actually used in production.

Not sure how common these scenarios would be, but I think its definitely possible and worth having the option.

EvanReese

tim_hess427 said:

@Evan_Reese - I remember seeing an example document showing Branches used to document different stages of manufacturing. So, one branch could be a cast part, but then another branch could include subsequent machining operations. I think this is one case where you'd want different part numbers used in the workspaces on different branches.

Another scenario could be if two branches have different design approaches that both need to be tested. In some places, these would both need part numbers to order the prototypes and track them through procurement and testing, even if one is never actually used in production.

Not sure how common these scenarios would be, but I think its definitely possible and worth having the option.

Thanks! Good examples. That answers my question and makes me even more comfortable with my decision.

shouldNotBePosting

silly me, my favorite is hide parts, composite parts, surfaces, meshes & curves:

If CAD were ranked by making things go away / come back; Onshape would beat all other CAD systems. Onshape is really good at this which makes things easier to design.

bryan_lagrange

Great update. Any chance we will see some sheet metal enhancements coming soon?????

Ben_Tek_Pac

john_mcclary said:

I saw the 'pro' next to your name, I assumed you had a pro seat

your assumption is right, but I have a customer without 'pro' which gives me some challenges to workaround

brucebartlett

Great Updates! Thanks again for the hard work and dedication, it really is awesome seamlessly getting these updates.  

Mass Properties are moving in the right direction but I am looking forward to being able to roll mass and c of g symbol into drawings, hopefully, this is planned. 

Editing properties for the tree is a nice update I will be making use of this.

Also love seeing some improvement to release management, the ability to auto propagate back to open nodes makes a lot of sense, it was a pain to having to create part numbers in multiple places. I'll set mine to all workspaces as I can't see myself releasing a different part number from a branch. 

danny_payne

Great improvements. I am excited about the surfacing learning path.

alex_pitt472

All great! Removing much friction here. Excellent mass/materials refinements.
I'm always skipping back and forth from section views so activating from the context flyout will be a good time saver.

fnxf

alex_pitt472 said:

All great! Removing much friction here. Excellent mass/materials refinements.
I'm always skipping back and forth from section views so activating from the context flyout will be a good time saver.

Shift-X also activates the section view

don_williams909

Very nice.  The mass properties thing is something I've been wanting for awhile.
Excellent!

Cache_River_Mill

Each of these are much appreciated, especially the update variables. Thank you Onshape team!

3D_Brooklyn

Hide all is great! Nice update

gkuhns

you read my mind. I was wishing for a COG indicator just last week. Thank you.

Henk_de_Vlaam

After this update I notice that keeping the vertical axis upright by holding the Alt-key while dragging with the right mouse button.does not work anymore. Am I the only one?

NeilCooke

Henk_de_Vlaam said:

After this update I notice that keeping the vertical axis upright by holding the Alt-key while dragging with the right mouse button.does not work anymore. Am I the only one?

Seems OK here.

Marc_Miller

No longer will I be annoyed when needing to rename a variable.  Thank you for that update!

andy_wilson530

I'm especially liking the custom mass properties and section view from context improvements. Nice. Thanks.

Henk_de_Vlaam

NeilCooke said:

Henk_de_Vlaam said:

After this update I notice that keeping the vertical axis upright by holding the Alt-key while dragging with the right mouse button.does not work anymore. Am I the only one?

Seems OK here.

@NeilCooke,

You're right. After yesterday I can also no longer reproduce the phenomenon. Strange but OK.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

spiritrider

Love the new Custom Mass Properties capability. When we have 5,000 grades of plastic resins, it is great to be able to plug a material's specific gravity and get the accurate part weight. I can actually plug in the formula which I use: SP.GR * .0361 * 1 * 453.6   All I need to do is find the Specific Gravity of the resin, and plug in the formula. This is something I have been waiting for for a long time. Thank you.