Better Booleans

fastwayjim

I didn't see any other place to discuss this, so...

1. When a part is mirrored about one of it's faces, there should be a toggle to automatically add a Boolean Union. An example is when you model an entire half a part, then finish it with a mirror. This is a very common workflow.

2. It is impossible to "shift select" a lot of tool parts while conducting a Boolean Subtract, because once you select it, it is immediately removed from the model tree! My workaround was to trick OS in pursuing a union, so I could select everything, then toggle it to subtract.

3. Can we add functionality to conduct Boolean operations with solids and surfaces? An example would be the "cut with surface" feature in SW. Also, It would be great for this to automatically occur if the referenced sketch is an open contour!

mark_biasotti

Yes - agree. Most times I "merge" my mirror with the origin so I'll cite that it be default behavior with option to not merge, and yes, when subtracting, have option to keep a copy of the tool. I spec'ed this for SWMC and it works well.

mark

kevin_quigley

Me too. Mirror+merge in one. Also +1 for cut with surface!

philip_thomas

@KevinQuigley - I am also very passionate about better booleans (and was one of the architects behind the current behaviors). There is a project to offer the union capability as an option alongside the mirror option. Without pre-empting a blog post, there are a number of differences between Onshape booleans and the way they have been traditionally implemented. For instance, boolean features will not fail if a null-set is created or more than one body is created. More cool stuff coming

brucebartlett

The "keep tools" tick box is already included on the subtract, I have used this a number of times when subtracting cutouts from a part using an existing part. I think this will become a common practise in my workflow, normally followed by a move face, offset command to add some clearance to the cut faces.

I have also used the mirror command followed by boolean command and was looking a union on the mirror command, good to know it will be added in at some stage.