Update: Super Derive with mate connectors

NeilCooke

I just pushed an update to the excellent Super Derive feature by @ilya_baran with 2 new options:

1. Use origin - on by default, will use the origin of the Part Studio as before. Turned off, will use the first mate connector of the first derived part.
2. Include mate connectors - off by default, will not derive the part's mate connectors as before. Turned on, will derive mate connectors AND add the mate connectors to the resultant part if add/remove/intersect are used. This means that merged parts will inherit the derived mate connectors which will then appear in further derives or assembly instances. Use origin and Include mate connectors are NOT mutually exclusive.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfef86ed4f9635531599a973

EvanReese

Cool options. Already love that feature!

S1mon

Why not make it so that mate connectors in the derived part other than the first one could be selected? I could see that being really helpful.

NeilCooke

@S1mon couldn’t think of a good UI for it. Considered the mate connector quadrant icon but that only has 4 options (better than nothing). Didn’t want to have an integer input. Any ideas? Glad to add it but only if it makes sense. 

S1mon

@NeilCooke

I guess I was imagining something like the profile reference dots in the frame feature, but that only works if the MCs are locationally distinct enough.



Can you easily pull up the names of the MCs? It's not too crazy to expect that if, as a user, I want to pick a particular MC, I would be willing to name them in such a manner that I can pick the one I want.

NeilCooke

No can do - one of the frustrating limitations of custom features is that nothing exists until the feature regenerates so there is no way to get the MCs to allow selection of a name. The point manipulator could work - I'll have to try it.

EvanReese

Kind of a kludge, but you could make another feature that goes in the source part studio at the end of the feature list, which creates a hidden variable containing a map with the MC names and coordinate systems (using a non-allowed character in the variable name like "@" hides it, but it still exists). From there you'd be able to make point manipulators in Super Derive. That might be taking it in too unintuitive of a direction though.

Taylor_Nicholson

It seems that when inserting a part with a mate connectors, the mate connectors don't list independently in the feature tree. And don't hide/show when pressing 'k'. This is especially confusing when using super derive on a part with multiple mate connector. Is is possible to list the mate connectors in the tree?

EvanReese

@Taylor_Nicholson
This is the current standard behavior. You can click the eyeball next to the feature to hide or show them all, but that's it. I've requested the ability to expand and collapse features like a folder if they are creating several things at once like this. You can vote for it here.