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Improvements to Onshape - February 23rd, 2024

Roy_MutalikRoy_Mutalik Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 37
edited March 15 in New in Onshape
February may be the shortest month of the year, but we're happy to ship to you a second Onshape release this month! Let's take a look at some new features.

PART STUDIOS

BODY DRAFT

A new feature - Body draft - has been added. Body draft allows you to add draft to one or more entire parts all in one feature, based on selecting a pull direction and a parting surface. 

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


BOUNDARY SURFACE - MATCH CURVATURE

The Boundary surface feature now includes a new Boundary condition option to Match curvature. This maintains curvature continuity (G2 Continuity) between the created surface and reference surface.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/7qt9xcu7a4


AREA MOMENTS OF INERTIA

You can now evaluate the Area moment of inertia of a selected face (or multiple selected coplanar faces), directly from the Mass properties dialog.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/pcrswg52zs


ADDITIONAL SKETCH TOOLS NOW SUPPORT DIMENSIONING ON THE FLY

The 3 point circle, Tangent arc, Inscribed polygon, and Circumscribed polygon sketch features now support a more efficient dimension-on-the-fly workflow. You no longer have to manually select the dimension tool to create a dimension; instead, key in a value immediately after the sketch geometry is created and press Enter to accept it.



ASSEMBLIES

SWITCH THE ASSEMBLY CONFIGURATION THAT A CONTEXT IS REFERENCING

When editing a part in-context of an Assembly, you can now change which Assembly Configuration your context is referencing. 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/tkkt2lpxmw


FEATURESCRIPT

ICONS FOR PARAMETER CONTROLS

Custom feature horizontal and drop-down parameter controls can now include icons.



IMPORT/EXPORT

STEP EXPORT - NEW PREPROCESSING OPTION FOR SURFACES

A new Preprocessing option is now supported for STEP file format export. This option is the same as the Remove small entities only (advanced) option, with the additional step where all surfaces are converted to b-surfaces.



IGES IMPORT - POSTPROCESSING

A new option for IGES postprocessing has been added upon import. This option ensures that linear edges are not imported as curves.



RELEASE MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS

VIEW PERMISSIONS NOTIFICATION FOR APPROVERS

You will now receive a notification if you add an approver to a Release candidate but they do not have permission to view the document containing the release. 



LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

ONSHAPE-ARENA CONNECTION - USER AND ADMIN GUIDES

Two new guides have been added to the Learning Center, containing lessons and best practices around using the Onshape Arena Connection:

The Onshape Arena Connection Admin Guide explains how to configure your Onshape Enterprise to synchronize data with Arena PLM. This article is recommended for Onshape Enterprise Admins.

The Onshape Arena Connection User Guide focuses on the core functionality of the Onshape Arena Connection. It explains how to use the connection to assign categories, generate part numbers, synchronize data, add an Onshape release to an Arena Change, and automatically upload PDF and STEP data to Arena PLM. This article is recommended for all Onshape Arena Connection users.



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.

Comments

  • Lucas_KuhnsLucas_Kuhns Member, csevp Posts: 100 PRO
    That body draft will be pretty neat to use! I have a casting design to work on right now that will definitely utilize this on.
  • rick_randallrick_randall Member Posts: 331 ✭✭✭
    G2 boundary surface conditions - I've wanted this one for quite a while,  Thank you
  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,039 PRO
    Body draft is a bit of a weird one. It solves some things that I would have had to use Isocline (or some of the custom features that predated that) plus some parting line drafts to achieve in the past. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove material from a part by adding draft, only add material, but it can do that interesting ways. Here's the first one that's kinda helpful. I started with a sphere where its equator is on the top plane:



    If you are already using @Evan_Reese's Selection Draft, then I'm not sure that drafting a whole part is that great since I can't seem to find a way to remove material. 
  • partsovenpartsoven Member Posts: 25 PRO
    that draft body tool looks especially useful 
  • armandoRRarmandoRR Member Posts: 18 PRO
    I was just computing moments of inertia by hand for custom extrusions. Love that it's built in now.
  • emagdalenaC2iemagdalenaC2i Member, Developers, Channel partner Posts: 863 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Another new addition of improvements. Great job!!

    En este enlace podéis ver las Novedades de Onshape en español:
    https://youtu.be/t5g6BVgayQA
    Un saludo,

    Eduardo Magdalena                         C2i Change 2 improve                         ☑ ¿Por qué no organizamos una reunión online?  
                                                                         Partner de PTC - Onshape                                     Averigua a quién conocemos en común
  • jakeramsleyjakeramsley Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 661
    S1mon said:
    Body draft is a bit of a weird one. It solves some things that I would have had to use Isocline (or some of the custom features that predated that) plus some parting line drafts to achieve in the past. There doesn't seem to be a way to remove material from a part by adding draft, only add material, but it can do that interesting ways. Here's the first one that's kinda helpful. I started with a sphere where its equator is on the top plane:



    If you are already using @Evan_Reese's Selection Draft, then I'm not sure that drafting a whole part is that great since I can't seem to find a way to remove material. 
    Hi S1mon,

    Yes, body draft will only create material.  I will probably get this wrong, but I believe under the covers it is finding the isoclines at the desired angles and then creating material to the parting entity (then cleaning up depending on the other options).  For completely analytical parts, it is often that regular draft or parting line draft would suffice.  As soon as more complex surfaces are involved, I find this approach is needed to make something that is moldable.
    Jake Ramsley

    Director of Quality Engineering & Release Manager              onshape.com
  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 1,947 PRO
    Most excited by the sketch quick dimensions as I use these a lot and had been avoiding using the "return to line to create tangent arc" function because of that.
    Disappointed to see the slot tool didn't get any love, it really sticks out as the "odd" one now! Here's to hoping this means there's some other more in-depth rework for that one! 
  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,039 PRO
    @GregBrown

    I got the sense that there was more to it. As is often the case, the short demos in these improvement posts only touch on the very surface of some of these more complex features.

    @jakeramsley

    "For completely analytical parts, it is often that regular draft or parting line draft would suffice.  As soon as more complex surfaces are involved, I find this approach is needed to make something that is moldable."

    Typically if I have really complex shapes with complex parting lines, they are cosmetic parts and I'm going to want to do careful surfacing to make everything look clean. However if I was doing a lot of complex shapes that were completely mechanical, then this tool could be super helpful. I'm kinda imagining things like linkages with bosses at various places which need to be split along a crazy parting line.

    I slapped this model together to try out Body Draft a little further, and I can see where it's helpful, but it is surprisingly picky. I couldn't get it to handle a lot of fillets on the model or the bosses all in one go. I could do the main body in one relatively easy step, which is very cool, but again, I would normally design a part like this at MMC, and remove material for draft, not add to it. I needed to add most of the little fillets after the draft.

  • aeromorrisonaeromorrison Member Posts: 26 PRO
    Area Moment of Inertia! Finally! I'll be using this weekly for sure. Hopefully more mass/area properties are on the development roadmap as well. This has been a weaker area of Onshape compared with other tools.
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,141 PRO
    Area Moment of Inertia, been waiting for this one. Thank you!
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • rafael_telgmannrafael_telgmann Member Posts: 125 ✭✭✭
    Great update again! Thx! Dimensionnig on the fly, love it!
  • chet_mortonchet_morton Member Posts: 2 ✭
    Moment of Inertia is HUGE! Thank you!
    I love Onshape because you actively make it nicer for developers and the end user. I recommend it to all of my friends.
  • shawncrockershawncrocker Member Posts: 8 ✭✭

    SWITCH THE ASSEMBLY CONFIGURATION THAT A CONTEXT IS REFERENCING.  Yes.  This is a good one I have needed but never thought to ask for!

  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 2,012 PRO
    edited February 24

    Quality improvements team! It's improvements like these that make Onshape the GOAT B)

    I especially like:
    • Icons for parameter controls
    • Body draft
    • Boundary surface - match curvature


    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   Learn How to FeatureScript Here 🔴
  • danny_paynedanny_payne Member, User Group Leader Posts: 40 PRO
    Great updates. I have been waiting for the area moments of inertia. This will be very helpful.
  • DesignGearsDesignGears Member Posts: 2 ✭
    Lots of nice updates! 🙏
  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 1,947 PRO
    shawncrocker said:

    SWITCH THE ASSEMBLY CONFIGURATION THAT A CONTEXT IS REFERENCING.  Yes.  This is a good one I have needed but never thought to ask for!

    Now we just need the ability to switch the context to a different version/branch...
  • JosefBurjetaJosefBurjeta Member Posts: 28 PRO
    Match curvature for Boundary surface is great, been waiting a long time for this. Now we just need to add guides for both U and V direction and we're golden. :smile:
  • don_williams909don_williams909 Member Posts: 142 PRO
    Good stuff...
  • spiritriderspiritrider Member, csevp Posts: 31 PRO
    Thank you for Body Draft!  Great tool for us plastics design folks!
  • nick_papageorge_dayjobnick_papageorge_dayjob Member, csevp Posts: 843 PRO
    +1 draft!
  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,039 PRO
    It's about that time again...
  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 1,947 PRO

  • bryan_lagrangebryan_lagrange Member, User Group Leader Posts: 832 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Come on sheet metal loft!
    Bryan Lagrange
    Twitter: @BryanLAGdesign

  • sebastian_glanznersebastian_glanzner Member, Developers Posts: 425 PRO
    edited March 15
    @bryan_lagrange Yes, we need sheet metal loft 😀
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