User Group Meeting: Non-traditional Onshape use

bryan_lagrange

I was thinking of doing a user group meeting on unique/ non-traditonal ways to use Onshape. Items such as using features in ways other than they were intended for, or using Onshape in a non traditional way. Use it to create a house plan, facility layout, or like @chadstoltzfus a game (Onshape wordle). I used Onshape to create a unique user group logo that I saved as an image and added it to my Google slides presentation.  Thoughts? Participants?

matthew_mueller537

Sounds like a great idea! I've put a bunch of examples of non-traditional usage of Onshape on this website. Another non-traditional use case demoed in this video of a 3D printing workflow. And there's a bunch of researchers doing cool work with Onshape that goes beyond traditional CAD - we'll be highlighting some of that work in the Onshape Research Symposium on August 3rd.

MichaelPascoe

Agreed, fantastic idea!

john_mcclary

I use it as a file sharing tool for the shop to always have the latest version of the PDF available.

If we just use the file system, then the PDF would become readonly and every edit/update would require going around to 20 computers on the shop floor to ensure they do not have it open. (And we all know shop users will always leave files open, even at the end of their shift).

this way They can see all drawings that are "In Production", and updates can be pushed to them seamlessly, no matter who has it open.

john_mcclary

@chadstoltzfus's wordle is pretty cool.

Combine that with @ilya_baran's RNG.

then if you want, you can hide the available answers in another document then import them. In this case I just have the array of answers on the top of featurescript.

Now take the sketch RNG and move the dot to a random location.
It will take that vector and pass it through the PRNG as the seed, and choose an answer to play with.
While at the same time hiding the answer in the variable table! You cheaters! Although if you know how to use a debugger or what not, then of course you can still cheat.. but not much you can do to get around that one.

I chose to use a vector for the rng rather than having them enter a random number, since it is more interesting to pick a random point in space than enter a number in a box. For me at least.

Also I'm taking the Featurescript corse and wanted to play around a bit.

Wordle: Onshape Edition - RNG | Wordle

john_mcclary

Shit.. I need someone to model a deck of cards.. Now i got my wheels turning... 

john_mcclary

Never mind, It wasn't all that much to make a deck.

Now just need to do a proper shuffle and we may be able to play some Onshape poker multiplayer during the next User Group

bryan_lagrange

Here is the link to register for the meeting:

June 28th 5PM central

https://www.onshape.com/en/user-group-network/professional

MichaelPascoe

5pm CDT or CST?

bryan_lagrange

CDT

MichaelPascoe

Thanks, registered.

john_mcclary

See you all there

alan_baljeu

It seems to me Onshape would be pretty good at mathematics (geometry) and physics, highschool level stuff at least, especially with the open featurescript where you can make features aimed at math modeling, and the assembly constraint system too.

john_mcclary

Oh Yeahhhh
Enjoy
Onshape: Cards | Blackjack

fnxf

john_mcclary said:

Oh Yeahhhh
Enjoy
Onshape: Cards | Blackjack

@richard_doyle no need now for Las Vegas if Las Vegas comes to you

MichaelPascoe

Very nice! @john_mcclary

john_mcclary

I suppose another thing I have our sales team use Onshape for is a quoting tool for our spiral chutes.

Now they enter the parameters into a Feature, and it spits out a full model with fasteners and flat patterns. So there is no more guessing how many sheets of steel we need to charge the customer, allowing us to be more competitive with customization, speed, cost.

Whereas before we were using an overly complex spreadsheet that attempted to add up all of the surface area. by brute force calculating flat patterns in VBA...

tim_hess427

@john_mcclary - That's really cool. Is this tool ever used collaboratively between sales and the customer to find an optimal solution? When I've bought complex things, I always worry that I'm going to ask for something that makes everything more expensive when there's a different, more optimized approach I'm not aware of (and the sales person isn't helping me find). Having all the configurability laid out along with quick cost feedback (even if its just an estimated order of magnitude to show comparisons between options) would be awesome from my perspective. 

john_mcclary

Yea, in fact just last week I sent out an approval drawing and the customer comes back with "I need something different that tucks underneath the mezzanine and avoids the fork truck isle, and the human walkway"

3 hours later I had 5 or 6 concepts to show him.
We did a web meeting where I tweaked it some more.
Once he accepted, 2 hours later I had a new approval drawing

steve_shubin

@john_mcclary

Outstanding and really fantastic work John

very impressive

john_mcclary

Now with Colors

Grayscale

Traditional

Colorful



Does anyone know how to make extrude not fill in the inner regions?
I'd prefer not to use a stencil font.


Normal text extrude in a partstudio doesn't fill in the regions, so why does the featurescript opExtrude?

NeilCooke

@john_mcclary
https://cad.onshape.com/FsDoc/library.html#qSketchRegion-Id-boolean

john_mcclary

Thanks @NeilCooke that's what I was looking for

bryan_lagrange

@matthew_mueller537 @chadstoltzfus @john_mcclary @samuel_holland

Would 20-25min for presentation work for you guys?

john_mcclary

Sure

chadstoltzfus

Works for me.

bryan_lagrange

@john_mcclary @chadstoltzfus @samuel_holland @matthew_mueller537

Do you guys have some screen shots or images of the items you will be presenting at the user group meeting?

I would like to use them to promote the meeting on social media.

Thank you in advance 

chadstoltzfus

Here you go!