FEATURE SUGGEST: Extrude by a length of any edge or point-to-point distance

jan_suchánek

Hi all!
There could be an option in Extrude function to get the length of extrude from any edge or any point-to-point with user entry length to add/shorten the total extrude length. This coud maintain the linkage between parts.

S1mon

I very much miss extrude from-to vertex from Solidworks. It kind of exists in Onshape with the second direction option an the up to vertex end conditions (which also includes offset options).

However what’s missing is it takes more clicks in Onshape, I always end up having to toggle the second direction a couple times to get it right, and draft is applied from the sketch plane, not the start vertex. 

The last one is a big disappointment for me, as I got in a very strong habit of keeping most of my sketches on the default planes, and extruding with draft from vertexes which were defined by orthogonal sketches.

On the plus side, Onshape’s implementations of faces (SWX’s regions) is much better, and I really like using mate connectors “inline” as sketch planes.

eric_pesty

I agree the "second end" usually lets you get there but requires quite a few clicks to get it right, especially when you add offsets and need to make sure both your direction and offset directions are correct!
When it comes to draft I have found it's usually cleaner to use a separate draft feature so I rarely use the draft in the extrude feature (only for "basic" cases). Being able to use a mate connector means you can adjust your neutral plane on the fly easily so it makes that par simpler.

S1mon

@eric_pesty
It can be cleaner to add draft separately, but without @Evan_Reese 's Selection Draft, it can be painful to draft a bunch of faces which might change. In the past I've had plenty of features where it was easy to create them with draft, but drafting them after the fact would fail. I find it easier to locate the draft related to specific features in the feature dialog, instead of having a folder of "Draft 1" "Draft 2" "Draft 3" ... and trying to track down which Draft feature is for which things.

I also strongly believe in drafting all major features as you model, and not doing it completely after the fact (not strictly speaking in the same feature that builds the geometry, but just not all the way at the end). Some people like to do it at the end, thinking that they can have an easy-to-machine version first, and then add draft later when it's getting closer to tool release. To me, that's a recipe for disaster when you realize that tall boss is going to cause a ton of sink or the cosmetic surfaces look terrible when you get around to putting in all the parting lines.

eric_pesty

@S1mon
I was thinking more add the draft right after the extrude than at the end. To some extent you can leverage "multi body" to limit variable selections (if you are extruding something that intersect with a bunch of other things that may get modified after the fact, but I agree there are definitely cases where it makes sense to put the draft in the feature.

Toshimichi_Oda

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/540f17173850cb570ab0d396/w/0762bbf64bbc2b58fd70b5c6/e/95606fc2b6fce5be1ef40e07?renderMode=0&uiState=6315fe45ceaf42292cf9bc23

It can move for the time being.
UI is confusing.
There may still be bugs.