Improvements to Onshape - October 13th, 2023

Roy_Mutalik

Welcome to the 14th release of Onshape this year! You've seen a lot of new features in just ten months, and there's no time to slow down now!

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

AUTOMATIC RESIZING OF SELECTION FIELDS

Feature dialogs now automatically and intelligently resize for selection fields that contain a long list of items.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/x92rlux534

HOLE FEATURE IMPROVEMENTS

The Hole feature now includes new start conditions to improve usability in creating stacked holes. Additionally, a Hole feature is now named in your Feature list based on the size, depth, and type of hole type you have selected. This name dynamically updates if the hole is edited.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/cv4idllxhj

SIMPLIFIED ICONS IN UPPER RIGHT CORNER

In the top right corner of Onshape, there are new simplified icons for easier navigation to frequently-used pages.

DRAWING IMPROVEMENTS

DATUM TARGETS

You may now define Datum targets in Onshape Drawings. 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/uh2mjlnqdl

CROP SECTION & BROKEN-OUT SECTION VIEWS

You may now crop both Section and Broken-out Section views in drawings using the standard Crop view functionality.

ATTACH CALLOUTS TO EXTENSION LINES

You may now attach a callout directly to a dimension extension line. When moving the dimension, the callout moves in tandem. Deleting the dimension also deletes the callout.

FORESHORTENED DIMENSION IMPROVEMENTS

The format and display of foreshortened dimensions has been changed to match commonly-used standards.

LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

SELF-GUIDED BOOTCAMP UPDATES

In response to valuable feedback from our user community, we have significantly enhanced our Self-Guided Bootcamp course. This updated course offers a more comprehensive learning experience by including the latest improvements and adding four new lessons: an introduction to Simultaneous Sheet Metal, Top-Down Design, Release Management, and Onshape's Certifications.

SURFACE MODELING - FACE BLEND

A lesson on Face Blend has been added to the Onshape Surface Modeling Course. It includes a walkthrough of the interface and tips for how to solve different problems with specific options.

Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and leave your comments below. For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the changelog.

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new Documents. Over the next few days, these features will also be available in Documents created before this update.

MichaelPascoe

Nice improvements! Especially the icons and auto resizing. Ty Onshape team!

xTimRice

More resize == more better!!

glen_dewsbury

Nice round of updates.

S1mon

The marquee feature (resizing of selection fields) is definitely my favorite. Looking forward to as many updates as possible around making dialogs resizable so I can see more at once.

The hole tool updates make me like the idea of Onshape's version of "hole wizard" more and more. Naming with updates is very cool. I normally hate it when people name features with the dimensions in the name, because inevitably the name gets out of sync with reality, but if the names of holes always track the reality, that's great.

Datum targets are one of those things that should have been in as long as GD&T was a feature. Without them, it's always been incomplete, but better late than never.

Broken out sections are also a "finally".

S1mon

Oh wow. Buried in the Changelog is this gem: "Support mate connector selection (z-axis) as Start/End references in Bridging curve". This completes part of this improvement request: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/19767/allow-curves-to-use-mate-connectors-as-vertices (this update didn't cover 3D fit spline vertices, so I wouldn't close it yet).

This is so cool. Mate connectors add so much functionality to Bridge curve without the need to add lots of helper sketches etc. BTW, you can still have compound references for Bridging curve with Mate Connectors, so you can use the MC as a vertex, and pick another (not necessarily coincident) edge as a tangent reference.

Being able to add MCs normal or tangent to edges, curves, or surfaces at a distance (e.g. from a plane or other reference) or parameter (U, V) would be the icing on the cake for this. 

For more potential improvements around Mate Connectors, see this post: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/21813/mate-connectors-need-some-love

GWS50

Great Update. The Hole Feature Improvement alone will save me a lot of time. Thank you

david_mcmahon

My favorite, by far, is the ability to crop section & broken-out section views. Previously, there were some views that would not fit on a drawing sheet because they could not be cropped

billyzelsnack

The hole feature improvements are such a quality of life improvement. Thanks so much onshape!

ken_xu

The hole feature is so great, no need to manually rename it anymore. Hopefully this will come to the beam feature as well.

urs_egger099

Still a huge gap to catch up with the market leaders. It is super hard to convince my fellows when onshape lacks of basic CAD features. After all those years in the CAD Market I think it is time to put an extra effort and close the gap to get a mature CAD System. I am super convinced that the onshape datamanagement is the way we work in future. There is nothing comparable on the market.

STEG

Just WOW again! 

billy2

yeap, no sketches needed to create 3D organic shapes. Good find S1mon.

Chris_D_Mentes_001

This is HUGE! Thank you onshape!!! What a way to start my day!
Especially excited about:
-Resizing selection window (Always had issues scrolling past red items and hunting for them)
-Croping section views Usually have large units that only need a small section detail shown

Ben_Tek_Pac

Ben_Tek_Pac

Awesome update, love the resizing and the changelog reveals a lot of little things fixed. It is great when you find out the issues you have recently logged have been fixed and implemented. Thank you Onshape!!!!!!!!!!!!

MBartlett21

Could we have an option for a double-arrowhead on the detached end of the foreshortened linear dimension? AS1100.101-1992 requires it:

8.2.5.1(e): The free or floating end of a dimension line defining a feature not completely shown on a drawing shall be terminated by a double arrowhead (see example in Figure 8.22).

Figure 8.22:

antonio_portallo

Thanks for Resize. But it does not apply to the "Select others" from context menu, right? Sometimes it's very difficult to scroll a list with dozen of lines (in big projects), viewing only four...

george_gamow

Is it planned to be able to import .stl and be able to see and use stl vertices on Android?
Regards

Sommer

Happy to see some focus on the drawing environment. Onshape is still a little "light" when it comes to 2D drawings...

Keep up the good work

bill_schnoebelen

That holes feature and selection expansion improvments will come in handy!

sebastian_glanzner

Nice updates! I really like the improvements for Drawings.
@S1mon Nice find in the changelog, very useful

Hans_Leirvik_1

Nice, resizing dialogs.
Improved drawings - good, but don't stop improving

Axel_Kollmenter

AWESOME!!!

Luis_Herranz

Ben_Tek_Pac said:

Thanks for pointing this out. I have filed a bug for our developers to fix this issue.

Nath_McC

Great update.

One thing I dislike about the hole renaming is when the feature is suppressed, the title reverts to 'Hole.' Where prior, it would maintain the name or updated name for the feature.

If it is unsupressed, it changes back. My below example is a M8 a M10, and M12 threaded Hole.

john_mcclary

Awesome Update!

I've been waiting for AUTOMATIC RESIZING OF SELECTION FIELDS and CROP SECTION & BROKEN-OUT SECTION VIEWS for a long time!

So glad for Hole Feature Renames Itself — Onshape! Our first Bingo Square!
Too bad there isn't a way to refresh existing hole features to gain this benefit.

Great job as always Onshape team!

justin_hodges

Great improvement to the hole feature!

fnxf

1. New security email for new device sign-in, OAuth application or updating primary email
2. Improved hole feature naming
3. Improved half/foreshortened dimensions (remove dimension line after placed dimension) in Drawings

Thank you!

john_allen289

Nice work Onshape, these are all solid core improvements, it is so obvious you are listening to users feedback over time, so thank you. I can also see a personally requested improvement resolved in the Changelog. Hole Feature and crop/broken-out section views will get used immediately.

Gavin_Munro

Loving the hole improvements. We use 1/4" & 1/2" NPT threaded holes a lot and it would be great to be able change the depth of those, without losing the template. Currently, if you try to adjust the hole depth, it changes away from tapped NPT. Any chance of adding Parker MP Autoclave holes as a standard hole option?