Building a helix on a torus...

roger_m_kolaks

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/fe0d53673e7eb639664f6ae0/w/cd029c352411afd1d03893a7/e/13c491ba9e5c3598f51ace18

Is there a simpler way to construct this toroidal helix than my method?  It's in the Parts tab _Toroid Helix_.



I realize there I need to get rid of the redundancies.

   ..rmk

roger_m_kolaks

Looks like you fixed it.  Good job.



   ..rmk

Matt_Shields

I made these a while back.  They might help.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/540024dc238c4892e65f18d4/w/2e339b4cfdf2c56505abd48c/e/d61ac75b4954f410514f1aba

john_lopez363

@roger_m_kolaks ...Try the Feature Script called 3D Spiral!  Then Sweep the profile.

martin_kopplow

I did not even know about this FS. We urgently need need need a place to search and browse all existing feature scripts! With Images of what they do! In this case one user is looking for a toroidal curve, and he's bound to never find the 3D spiral which would provide an immediate solution, just because the search prompt misses it by a hair. I don't understand why OS is not taking care of this powerful selling point.

Matt_Shields

True.  But, did you know that they added the ability to search public for published FeatureScripts a while back?

rick_randall

Matt_Shields, would you mind explaining the process of setting up the search parameters in a little more detail - I'm not getting the results that you did and this seems handy.

Matt_Shields

Last November, Onshape added the ability to formally publish FeatureScripts.  And with it, the ability to search public documents by published FeatureScript.  When you open the search parameters box, you can add "Published FeatureScript" as a criteria.  When you set the criteria to true, it adds "hasPublishedFSVersion:true" to the search box.  Searching for "name:curve hasPublishedFSVersion:true" got me that list of 5 Feature Scripts.

MichaelPascoe

@martin_kopplow & @rick_randall

I agree that the current custom feature search methods are not sufficient.

If you guys haven't already voted, please up vote the Feature Store - Improvement Request. https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/19889/feature-store

roger_m_kolaks

The Toroidal Spiral script appears to operate in failure mode at the scale I need, and  fails entirely when Numbereof Coils greater than about 40..

   ..rmk

rick_randall

Thanks Matt, Got all the boxes to show what you had, but still no - just blank screen (no matches found). Maybe not for us free guys?

 And Micheal, I just +1 on the vote.

martin_kopplow

Matt_Shields said:

True.  But, did you know that they added the ability to search public for published FeatureScripts a while back?

Yes, I know about that one, though it does not appear to return much useful results to me. If you don't get the very exact search prompt the publisher used (most of us are not native englishmen), then you'll find nothing. There is no way to narrow in on results and if the publisher made a typo (Torroidal curve!) there is no chance at all to find an existing FS, even if you know the exact term. I've had quite some frustration with it, even after the admitted improvement.

Matt_Shields

Good feedback.  I just added a "Steps" parameter to the UI, which helps.

_anton

Or, if you want full control, you can use Parametric Curve: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/578ff8b3e4b0e65410fcfda3

Caden_Armstrong

martin_kopplow said:

I did not even know about this FS. We urgently need need need a place to search and browse all existing feature scripts! With Images of what they do! In this case one user is looking for a toroidal curve, and he's bound to never find the 3D spiral which would provide an immediate solution, just because the search prompt misses it by a hair. I don't understand why OS is not taking care of this powerful selling point.

This is why I created fs.place. I wanted an easier way to find high quality featurescripts.
But now I face the challenge of getting developers to add their features to the database.
If you have features, please add them!

S1mon

@Caden_Armstrong

I very much appreciate the effort, but the challenge is now we have now have yet another incomplete way to find useful FeatureScripts. 

1. Searching/asking on the Forums
2. Searching public FS in Onshape (with or without the published flag)
3. https://fs.place/
4. https://www.cadsharp.com/featurescripts/
   
5. bubble.io - used to have a good list, but seems to be no longer supported/updated
6. https://onshape4frc.com/cad-library
   
7. https://www.onshape.com/en/features/custom-features#spotlight-features (finally updated to remove obsolete features!)
   
8. Searching/asking on Discord
9. Seeing things shared on social media

It's also frustrating how there isn't a great way to share a list of FeatureScripts. 

MichaelPascoe

@Caden_Armstrong's fs.place is the most legit one yet. But the issue remains, unless it is a button like the app store, people just can't find it. I imagine most users don't know the forum exists, and an equally large number of them don't even know that custom features are a thing.

Then the users who learn about custom features, like myself when I learned, don't understand that you can add them to your toolbar. This is why there are a million copied documents for custom features. Probably only a small percentage of those are intentional copies for fs development purposes or enterprises.

roger_m_kolaks

Looks like you fixed it.  Good job.



   ..rmk