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Improved workflow - keyboard shortcuts within features
The basic idea (inspired by Plasticity - see below) is that because Onshape is in a browser, many normally potential keyboard combinations are already eaten up by the browser and OS. What if there were shortcut keys inside each feature? There are so many toggles and things that we all need to adjust on a regular basis that take a lot of clicks. If these could be handled by keys that were only bound within a feature, there would be more options for improving the workflow.
For example, in Plasticity, the equivalent of Bridge curve has G0, G1, G2, and G3 options. The equivalent dialog is also shown for Onshape. In Plasticity, the tab key quickly cycles through the curvature options. To be sure, you can select G0 for start and G3 for the end if you want by clicking in the dialog. However, in a typical case, you might want both ends to have similar curvature constraints, and you can change this without a bunch of clicks.
More About Plasticity:
I've been playing with Plasticity a lot recently. It's a new modeling program (in beta) that, like Onshape, is based on the Parasolid kernel. It has no history or parametric functionality - it's all about speed and workflow. Lots of direct modeling. It's not really a competitor to Onshape or other MCAD tools. It is intended to solve some of the pain of doing things like adding fillets on game asset models which, in the past were done with things like Blender or MOI. Some things remind me of Rhino, but the curves and surfacing tools are still relatively basic, although there's a guy doing pretty insane car models in Plasticity.
See these videos/links for more info:
https://nullpointerecho.notion.site/Showcase-Made-with-Plasticity-4138401aff8d4452845012959c25f1b5
For example, in Plasticity, the equivalent of Bridge curve has G0, G1, G2, and G3 options. The equivalent dialog is also shown for Onshape. In Plasticity, the tab key quickly cycles through the curvature options. To be sure, you can select G0 for start and G3 for the end if you want by clicking in the dialog. However, in a typical case, you might want both ends to have similar curvature constraints, and you can change this without a bunch of clicks.
More About Plasticity:
I've been playing with Plasticity a lot recently. It's a new modeling program (in beta) that, like Onshape, is based on the Parasolid kernel. It has no history or parametric functionality - it's all about speed and workflow. Lots of direct modeling. It's not really a competitor to Onshape or other MCAD tools. It is intended to solve some of the pain of doing things like adding fillets on game asset models which, in the past were done with things like Blender or MOI. Some things remind me of Rhino, but the curves and surfacing tools are still relatively basic, although there's a guy doing pretty insane car models in Plasticity.
See these videos/links for more info:
https://nullpointerecho.notion.site/Showcase-Made-with-Plasticity-4138401aff8d4452845012959c25f1b5
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Comments
In assembly or part mode ‘a’ (flip primary axis) and ‘q’ (reorient secondary axis) only function when dealing with mate connectors. What I’m suggesting is perhaps we can reuse/overload more keys and enable more quick functionality within various features.
It will take a lot of work to look through all the built in features and think through what keys are available at any given time, and what makes sense, but I think it could improve workflow.