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Improvements to Onshape - June 7th, 2024
Roy_Mutalik
Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 37 
Welcome to the new release! We are happy to share with you a few new features and functionalities in many different areas of the product. Let's take a look.
Permissions for who can enable Workspace protection will vary based on your Onshape license:
When exporting an Assembly or entire Part Studio, the option to Export unique parts as individual files is now available for any selected file format.
You can also customize this shortcut from Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts.
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
WORKSPACE PROTECTION
A new option to protect workspaces has been added. When Workspace protection is enabled for a branch, the workspace cannot be directly edited, and changes can only be applied through a merge operation from another branch. Release management, Drawing update operations, and version creation is still allowed for a protected workspace. Workspace protection introduces a more deliberate workflow; it does not prohibit users from making necessary changes, but it prevents unintentional ones from impacting a production workspace.Permissions for who can enable Workspace protection will vary based on your Onshape license:
- For Free, Standard and Professional licenses, any user with edit permission to the document can enable or disable Workspace protection within that document.
- For Enterprise licenses, a new global permission has been added for this feature. Users still need edit access to the document in order to enable or disable Workspace protection.
EXPORT PARTS AS INDIVIDUAL FILES
When exporting an Assembly or entire Part Studio, the option to Export unique parts as individual files is now available for any selected file format.MEASURE DIALOG SHORTCUT KEY
A new keyboard shortcut, the left square bracket ([) accesses the Measure tool when in an Assembly or Part Studio.You can also customize this shortcut from Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts.
PART STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
DERIVED WITH LOCATION
The Derived feature now includes a location option, allowing you to correctly place one or more instances of your parts, all in a single feature.LOFT GUIDE CURVE - NORMAL TO GUIDE OPTION
You can now select Normal to Guide as a continuity option for a Loft guide curve. To use this option, the Guide curve must be a sketch.SUPPRESSED, HIDDEN, AND SHOWN FILTERS IN PART STUDIO SEARCH
The Part Studio feature list search now includes filters for suppressed, hidden, and shown features.
DRAWING IMPROVEMENTS
PASTE AS TABLE
Tables in drawings can now be created by pasting cells from Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. For Firefox, only keyboard shortcuts are supported for copy & paste.LINEAR CENTERMARK PATTERNS
You can now easily create linear centermark patterns in Onshape drawings.AREA SIZE CONTROL FOR POINT STYLE DATUM TARGETS
An Area size option has been added, even when using a Point (X) or Point (dot) style Datum Target.REGION REFERENCES FOR NOTES
Notes now support region references in drawings (ex: attaching to the face of a part). By default, the attachment point of a notes leader changes to a round circle, similar to how it works with callouts, but the arrowhead can be changed from the Styles panel.RELEASE MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS
RELEASE CANDIDATE FILTER FOR ITEMS THAT NEED ATTENTION
The Create Release Candidate dialog now displays the number of items in the release that need attention and a filter toggle button at the top right corner of the dialog. Click the button to display only items that require attention and may prevent the release from being submitted. Click again to show all items.iOS IMPROVEMENTS
ACTION ITEMS
iOS now supports Onshape Action Items.LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS
DROPDOWN AND FILTERING FOR ALL CONTENT
There have been a few organizational changes in the Learning Center. First, many of the dropdowns at the top are more condensed and concise.
Additionally, in the Catalog, filters are now additive. You can use any combination of filters to get to the exact content you are looking for.
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.
Tagged:
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Comments
Custom FeatureScript and Onshape Integrated Applications
REGION REFERENCES FOR NOTES
(Hoping that next we get the ability to associate notes without leader lines to a drawing view so that they keep their position relative to the view when the view is moved on the page.)Hooray! A big help for notes on drawings views.
-Allow for Protection to be a bit more "smart"
-Add "exceptions", User(s) or Teams
-Triggers for auto-protection based on Release or other events
CAD Engineering Manager
Workspace protection is very interesting. It solves a lot of problems, but I suspect its use will really depend on the people involved understanding the concept. Is the intent that some companies would leave workspace protection on all the time, and only create changes in branches? The example was mostly about things like hide/show states in an assembly, but I assume that if a workspace is protected, I can't make any edits to a part studio either.
The intent behind workspace protection is to enable a more scalable workflow for a team working on a document: the main branch is kept "clean" and any change to the document is done on a "change" branch specifically for that change. Engineers then iterate and review and test their and each others' changes on the appropriate change branch, and when it's clean, it's merged back to main. This is very similar to the git workflow we use when developing Onshape and in our experience it keeps main in better shape and makes it easier to tell who did what and why. Over time, we intend to expand functionality to make this workflow more comfortable. But you're correct -- it does generally depend on people understanding the concept.
DERIVED WITH LOCATION - game changer
So many transform features can disappear!However..I do not like (always) disallowing multiple derivations of the same configuration. Sometimes for clarity/readability reasons it does make sense to derive the same part more than once.
Weirdly notes on regions is one of the things I'm most excited about
I like how the Onshape one is a bit smarter with mate connectors.
Finally! At long last, we can export step into individual files! Thank you so much for that!
Workspace protection should come in handy. We constantly go into a released workspace and hide / show things, leaving the next guy with a bunch of odd states.
Paste as table, that's really cool!
Cool, now we have a refer a friend button. But I think I've already referred everyone I've ever talked to in the last (holy crap... 7 years)
Since you can choose multiple origins, I can see your reasoning. I haven't tried it yet, but can we set a specific derived origin for each location?
The example showed 5 possible origins to choose from, but only used the initial selection. Then he had to edit the mate connector implicitly.
Think it would have been nicer to just choose the opposite mate connector origin. I know it would not be properly placed if they added asymmetrical feature to that foot. But in some cases (like an unchanging purchased part) where you many have a couple of location options it may come in handy.
I think you may want to vote this up: Set permissions (edit, read only, etc.) for a particular branch — Onshape
I've been waiting for this. One question, though: Will all parts in their files be on their own origin, after such an export, or will they be in the location the're in in the assembly?
Since there is no way to overwrite globals. I still use the derive method too.
It would be nice to omit the assemble attached to a every part studio for replication purposes.
When creating derived instances, do we get both translations & rotations for instances? Replicate in assemblies only translates which is annoying. And with that, match all faces in part studio and then add a derived instances. One button to add all fasteners.
Has the graphics been updated not to tesselate each instance but instead make reference to the 1st instance? Can I derive a 1000 bolts with threads?
Speaking of controlling derived instances with "measured" variables, can we please add angles to the measured type. Using "measured" variables without angle leaves a large hole in the realm of possibilities.
This is an important point -- the new derive feature simply provides a shortcut for making copies (a good example use case is a mounting boss that you would then boolean). It is *not* instancing in a Part Studio. The copies are individual unique parts and subsequent features (and property application) can individually modify them. So, we're not currently planning a Part Studio BOM or the "graphics shortcuts" you mention. The 1000 bolts (ideally without non-cosmetic threads) should go into an assembly (where you already get both). We do plan on extending measured variables to include angles.
As a consolation, when you get the chance, can you please add angle to measured variables. I'm using them a lot and angle is missing. There is a FS that for area, volume and other geometries. This is exciting when computing flow rates and other things of importance.
I'm working on a company standard as many of us are doing. One day, my day of reckoning, I'm going to sit in front of a bunch of engineers and say ok guys this is how it's done.
I have:
1 PS to compute pipe lengths
1 Assy to gather pipes
1 Top Assy to determine locations
2 in context references to each of the assy
I can move stuff around update 2 contexts and all is parametrically wonderful.
With derived instances I could do this with a top assy & 1 PS.
I would love for you to post your process. I've found that even simple contexts are too complex in production because it is not possible to ensure that everyone that might interact with a workspace is at the high end of the onshape experience level.