Favorite FeatureScripts - User Group Meeting Idea

richard_doyle

During open discussion at last nights "Highlights" meeting (https://www.onshape.com/en/user-group-network/highlights), @bruce_williams suggested a great idea for a future Onshape User Group meeting;

"Your Favorite FeatureScript Demonstrated and Explained"

If you have authored a FeatureScript that you are quite proud of and would like to do a short (3-5 min) presentation at an online meeting to briefly discuss why you created it and how you use it, please let us know. 

If you have a favorite FeatureScript that you use regularly but did not write, let us know and we'll ask the author about presenting or granting permission for you to present (if you're willing).

We might even be able to have a fun little contest.

There's no firm date yet for such a meeting, we'll see what kind of response we get and give plenty of time to prepare.

Richard

MichaelPascoe

Great idea @bruce_williams!

john_mcclary

I have 3 I use in every design.

FS: Stock Size | stockSize.fs (onshape.com)
Stock SIze @MBartlett21 helped (basically re-wrote the whole thing to be automaigk) 
Takes a part and measures it's size based on profile or flat pattern (in case of sheetmetal) and saves the result in a custom property for manufacturing drawings.

FS: Part Properties | Set Material (onshape.com)
Set Material
Takes a part and sets a material, calculates the weight and stores both material name and weight into part properties for manufacturing drawings.

FS:Sheet Metal Bend Table | SheetMetal Bend Table (onshape.com)
Bend Table
simple bend table for creating sheet-metal parts.
sets the thickness and bend radius to a variable so a partstudio can update all sheet metal parts quickly with the proper bend radius
also can be imported into other featurescripts like global variable imports so all your featurescripts can have a common bend table for the company.
example:
var myName = SM_Table[7].Name;
var myThickness = SM_Table[7].Size;
var myRadius = SM_Table[7].Bend;

result:
myName : 7ga
myThickness : .1793 in
myRadius: .262 in
 
Also because it is in the design tree, you can drag and drop/suppress these to quickly modify multiple SM parts without editing a feature.

lemon1324

If I'm free when this happens I can talk about my laser-cutting suite.

EvanReese

I'm in. hit me up.

romeograham

I'd love to attend something like this!

MichaelPascoe

There are too many good custom features, we are going to have to do this more than once!

EvanReese

@romeograham
you should present some of your faves even if you didn't author them. I know you're a collector 

@MichaelPascoe
I hope you'll tour some of your own, and maybe other favorites too.

MichaelPascoe

@Evan_Reese I'm down.

EvanReese

not sure if @konstantin_shiriazdanov has any interest, but I've love to watch that presentation. Either way some of those features should demonstrated.

konstantin_shiriazdanov

@Evan_Reese I would prefere if someone with a better English made a presentation of feature he likes. I could help with description and use cases.

EvanReese

konstantin_shiriazdanov said:

@Evan_Reese I would prefere if someone with a better English made a presentation of feature he likes. I could help with description and use cases.

Fair point. I find myself using your Measure Value and Transform Pattern features constantly. I'd be happy to talk through those, or if there's one in particular you're proud of, let me know and I can do that.

MichaelPascoe

I use measure value every day. Thanks @konstantin_shiriazdanov

richard_doyle

The meeting is scheduled, but I haven't received any responses from individuals willing to show their FeatureScript.

Thursday, May 27th, 6:00pm EDT - https://www.onshape.com/en/user-group-network/professional

If you are interested in presenting, please either send an email to usergroups@onshape.com or reply here and I'll chase you down with a registration link.

Richard

john_mcclary

I thought I already did

richard_doyle

john_mcclary said:

I thought I already did

Wasn't 100% sure. I'll put you on the list.

Richard

john_mcclary

Sounds Good Thanks

EvanReese

richard_doyle said:

The meeting is scheduled, but I haven't received any responses from individuals willing to show their FeatureScript.

From the above it seems like you have myself, @MichaelPascoe and @lemon1324 excited about presenting

MichaelPascoe

Registered now. Didn't know that was there.

lemon1324

Yes, I'm in, just registered.

bruce_williams

Here are a few of my favorites and suggestions for presenting:

Calculate Bounds creates a bounding box of the chosen part(s). Has options for minimum size & orientation - @Jake_Rosenfeld (or I would be willing to present it)

Extrude Vertex 
ExtrudeDir both of these are much more versatile than standard tool - author unknown by me  (or I would be willing to present them)

Boolean plus very cool swiss army knife of Booleans - @MBartlett21 (either Morgan or someone else should present; I use but not experienced with all of its power)

Mold Tools an amazing suite of four prototype tools (although they work really well as is) - @NeilCooke see Neil's webinar on the tools here.  This could easily be a full meeting if Neil would be willing to show some of the deeper secrets to these features. At the what is coming part of conference, it was announced Onshape is working on turning these into full features.

emagdalenaC2i

Great idea !!!

Here are some of my favourite FeatureScripts:

FS Aluminium profiles: This FeatureScript allow to:

- Create standard machining types for aluminum profiles

- move faces (mainly to locate the covers for the profiles)

- Create panels inside the structures with all its components

- and create mate connectors to make the assemblies easily.

It's in Spanish right now, but I could translate it.

I shared it at Onshape Live '21 but I think there are a lot of people that don't know it yet ;-)

FS Perfiles: It's based on the FeatureScript Beams by @NeilCooke
Allows to create more easily the beams using groups. Each group of profiles can be located independently with their manipulators and the resulting beams of each group are trimmed by the beams of the previous groups.

I have not shared it yet, but I could do it during the presentation

Here you can see some images and a video https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/10840/beams-or-weldment-profiles-workflow

FS Welds I co-created this one with @MBartlett21 See https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/10720/new-featurescript-weld

I could present some of these or even create a small design (in less than 5 minutes) using these 3 FeatureScripts if you wish

EvanReese

@emagdalenaC2i
I'd love to see it!

I'm thinking this meeting format could be stretched into 2 or 3 full user group meetings without repeating any features. 

richard_doyle

So far here are the scheduled presenters for May 27th:

John McClary, Evan Reese, Michael Pascoe, Arul Suresh, Bruce Williams, Eduardo Magdalena, and Romeo Graham.

I think we have room for two more presenters, so if you are interested, let me know.

Richard

emagdalenaC2i

Please, could european presenters be the first ones??

The meeting is scheduled to start at 00:00 am here in Spain 

richard_doyle

emagdalenaC2i said:

Please, could european presenters be the first ones??

The meeting is scheduled to start at 00:00 am here in Spain 

Of course.

We'll try to schedule the next one at a more convenient time for Europe.

Richard

romeograham

Hi there,
I was thinking I'd show the Project Body featurescript from @MBartlett21 - anyone else already presenting this one? Several of my favourites are made by people presenting to this meeting, so I don't need to worry about presenting them.

Let me know if someone else already had been thinking about this one.

Thanks!
romeo

richard_doyle

We're just two days away - https://www.onshape.com/en/user-group-network/professional

We'll start the meeting 15 minutes early (5:45pm EDT) to allow for some introductions and networking. Not only do you get to see some great code, you'll get to meet some great people.

Richard

MichaelPascoe

Excellent meeting, there were some really cool features. It was great to meet some of the Onshape team up close.

@richard_doyle
Do you have a list of all the features presented tonight?

john_mcclary

Yes, best user group meet so far! 

chadstoltzfus

It was exciting to meet so many bright individuals. I jotted down several things I can update in our custom features. Looking forward to more collaboration with fellow FeatureScripters