New function tolerantSort()

kevin_o_toole_1

Hi all,

The latest release (Onshape 1.129 and FeatureScript 1483) came with a new helpful function in the Standard Library: tolerantSort().

This function is useful for sorting items based on measurements that have some inherent imprecision, like sorting a list of lines by length. This function sorts based on those measurements, except that when measurements are within the provided tolerance of each other, it defers to their order in the original list.

This can provide stability to your features, preventing the sort order of two items of equal size from occasionally switching due to unrelated changes.

Documentation for the function and simple example code can be found here.

One Feature Studio which has already been updated to utilize this function is @lemon1324's Laser Joint Utils, used by FeatureScript laser joint. The feature sorted parts from smallest to largest so it could consider the smaller part the "tab" and the larger part the "base". Using tolerantSort ensures that ties in size are broken by the original selection order, not arbitrarily.

Thanks for updating that script Arul, and happy FeatureScripting all!

– Kevin

MichaelPascoe

Thanks!

konstantin_shiriazdanov

wish a sort() function also worked on a sampling function which simply returns numeric value instead of boolean of comparison

lemon1324

@konstantin_shiriazdanov yeah, I ended up writing my own utility function to do that, essentially, but tolerantSort acts on a function returning a value, so in that sense, it does that.  Defining the function inline can still be a bit of a mess to read occasionally, but it's definitely more readable than defining my own function to return a boolean.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to get a hold of me on the forums, my personal Onshape account @lemon1324 is a bit more likely to actually ping me, rather than my work account - I'm not sure I have forum notifications enable there, and I definitely check the forum with that account less often.