Improvements to Onshape - January 26th, 2016

cody_armstrong

Are you ready for some updates?  Tons of exciting new things to talk about with this update including the public launch of the Onshape App Store, hole standards and a number of Drawing updates.   Let's jump in...

1. NEW Onshape App Store - the Onshape App Store is now publicly available to all Onshape users!
   
   https://youtu.be/zUxZR5OcJkw
   
   
2. NEW Dimension while sketching - Dimensions can now be entered while sketching lines, arcs, circles, and rectangles.
   
   https://youtu.be/RoUJpc4FTrQ
   
   
3. UPDATED Hole feature - Choose from ANSI or ISO standard hole sizes when using Hole feature.
   
   https://youtu.be/c2WzT-betMI
   
   
4. NEW Rhino Import/Export - Rhino files can now be imported and exported.
   
   https://youtu.be/Z6rMURIfdS4
   
   
5. NEW Unified Version and History - Combined interface for both Versions and History.
   
   https://youtu.be/Epe_5JSCgws
   
   
6. MANY Drawing Improvements - Including Balloons, title block associativity, and more.
   
   https://youtu.be/Nt7vcaDAm8Y

Honorable mentions

• DXF version support when exporting sketches.

• Auto advance focus in Mate connector dialogs. 
  
  
  
  
• Preview thumbnails on Insert sketch image dialog.  This also means if you upload a an image, you will also see this as a preview on the Documents page if that is the last action you did.
  
  
  

We hope you find many of these improvements on your list and are excited to hear about what you think of the App Store.  New apps will be added frequently so make sure to keep an eye on growing offerings from our Partners.
As always feedback is welcome and we are hard at work on the next round of updates for you!  

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new documents and over the next few days these features will also be available in documents created before the date of this update.

viru

Wow.... this is a great sets of update. Incredible work as always! You guys are awesome!

3dcad

Great update! Love the new sketch auto-dimension.

Congratulations for app-store launch!

I have noticed also few other improvements:
- Onshape now seems to accept also comma (,) as decimal separator (this is big if you have only comma in numpad setup) **
- Ability to select and drag bunch of sketch figures together

** EDIT false information, Onshape doesn't accept comma for decimal separator on v1.41.13761.0777bc200

matthew_menard

Looks like a great update, but is there a non-cliffnotes version of the OnShape updates available by chance?  It's not often that you get people interested in reading boring technical changes, but it seems like that is the case here.  Thanks for any input.

Mischa_Linnemann

Very nice work!
Thanks for your efforts guys!

Even if I haven't spend a lot of time using Onshape so far I have to say this system is simply amazing! Haven't been that excited about CAD since I first started with Solidworks in 2003...

3dcad said:

Great update! Love the new sketch auto-dimension.

Congratulations for app-store launch!

I have noticed also few other improvements:
- Onshape now seems to accept also comma (,) as decimal separator (this is big if you have only comma in numpad setup)
- Ability to select and drag bunch of sketch figures together

Sorry, this is off topic but I also stumbled about the comma on the numpad not been accepted the other day and tried it a second ago.
It does not work for me, yet.
Is there any option or preference I can set? This would be big for me, too!

Thanks.

don_howe

I just subscribed to the 3D PDF app and it only allows you to create 10 - 3D pdf's. I'm down to 8, I suppose that once the limit is reached you have to pay? 

I like all the updates, very cool!

peter_hall

@don_howe Did you view your download? What opened it Adobe Acrobat? I managed to download one file but it didnt sat what the file extension was and I didnt view it. Thought I might try looking at driveworks next unless I can work out 3D PDF. Mind you only 10 quantity is offputting anyway.

3dcad

mischa_linnemann said:

Sorry, this is off topic but I also stumbled about the comma on the numpad not been accepted the other day and tried it a second ago.
It does not work for me, yet.
Is there any option or preference I can set? This would be big for me, too!

Thanks.

I noticed same at work today =(
It seems like I was hoping it would work so much that I didn't notice that my chromebook has period in numpad.

But the bright side for me is that now I know I can use numpad with cb at least  

don_howe

peter_hall said:

@don_howe Did you view your download? What opened it Adobe Acrobat? I managed to download one file but it didnt sat what the file extension was and I didnt view it. Thought I might try looking at driveworks next unless I can work out 3D PDF. Mind you only 10 quantity is offputting anyway.

My downloads worked fine for me; I had to enable the 3D option in Acrobat Reader. The file type is an Adobe Acrobat Document

robert_morris

Great set of updates! It's nice to see steady improvements like this.

A couple of questions about these:
1. Any chance of adding Tapered Pipe Threads as a standard hole type along with the ANSI/ISO threads?
2. Since the App Store has been released, does that mean a public API is going to be released soon as well?

Thanks for the great work.

fastwayjim

Awesome stuff!

noah_saxenian

Something weird happened in these new updates. I'm not sure if this is meant to be like this and there is now a better way to do this, but it seems that when I go to make a sketch, many of the sketch tools have disappeared including offset, =, |, ––, and many others. Is there another way to access these functions now? Thanks!

jakeramsley

noah_saxenian said:

Something weird happened in these new updates. I'm not sure if this is meant to be like this and there is now a better way to do this, but it seems that when I go to make a sketch, many of the sketch tools have disappeared including offset, =, |, ––, and many others. Is there another way to access these functions now? Thanks!

Hi noah_saxenian,

Can you submit a support ticket using the 'Feedback' option in the help dialog (the '?' in the top right corner of Onshape)?

zoltan_szabo

Gents, Thanks for these awesome updates!

My question for title block filling up is how I can prepare my existing custom templates with these system parameters?
As I tried, it works with default Onshape templates, but I would like to use my own templates...

brucebartlett

zoltan_szabo said:

My question for title block filling up is how I can prepare my existing custom templates with these system parameters?
As I tried, it works with default Onshape templates, but I would like to use my own templates...

My question too

_andrew_

when will pre-release documents be migrated to the new set of functionality? it seems that a byproduct is that new documents can't derive parts from pre-release documents?

lougallo

@andrew_mirsky Usually over the days to follow the release.  If you have issues with a specific document, use the ? menu -> support and we can help.  ~Lou

lougallo

@noah_saxenian This is a bug related to your screensize.. I have added you to the bug.  

shashank_aarya

Wow! Appstore is really awesome!  But I was not sure what exactly free monthly usage means. Is it free for month after subscription or it is unlimited at this moment? Any ways I also loved the dimensioning during sketching. Thanks a lot for the great update!

jon_mcintyre

brucebartlett said:

zoltan_szabo said:

My question for title block filling up is how I can prepare my existing custom templates with these system parameters?
As I tried, it works with default Onshape templates, but I would like to use my own templates...

My question too

We are working on a way to add them while inserting or editing notes.

NeilCooke

@zoltan_szabo @brucebartlett see my post here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/2572/custom-title-blocks?new=1

david_sohlstrom

I downloaded the visualCAD/CAM. Very disappointed. It loaded all of the parts in the studio and only allows 1 machining op. No drilling, no pocketing, no inside or outside profiling. 
What have others found that have downloaded the app.

Dave

BLJ_ENGINEERING

david_sohlstrom said:

I downloaded the visualCAD/CAM. Very disappointed. It loaded all of the parts in the studio and only allows 1 machining op. No drilling, no pocketing, no inside or outside profiling. 
What have others found that have downloaded the app.

Dave

Dave, if you are talking about the FreeMILL part of VisualCAM then yes, I'm also very disappointed. Since I've never used a CAM before it didn't quite add up that I could learn every single function of the program in just 2 minutes. From what I can see, you can't even mill a circle with this? I could be wrong..
I also hope that Onshape doesn't let this app store be yet another marked place for Free Software* with FREE** use*** of ANY* file format** conversion-import-as-long-as-you-spend-1200$*-on-the-full-version**-deal. Sorry for being direct, but I would be more than happy to cash out the asking price if the product is good and the company is honest.

michał_1

I do agree that FreeMILL is lame. Just to play, you can use VisualCAM. In demo you can create all needed paths but there's no option to export any code. Something like a year ago I was evaluating CAM for company where I work... and since I couldn't test VisualCAM on our router, we've choose one of HSMs cam. In order to move forward (instead of complaining) I would try some products with HSM or try CamBam.

For linux CamBam is free, I haven't test Cam Bam, yet... but I will, since at home I've moved form Windows to Ubuntu (this is also reason why I'm using Onhape more often). Here is a link to CamBam gallery, it looks pretty convincing: http://www.cambam.info/screenshots/
and link to manual: http://www.cambam.info/doc/CamBam-0.9.8N.pdf
edit
I've just start reading about CamBam and it looks like I've been misguided (by this source: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Cam), there is free CamBam and CamBam+.

BLJ_ENGINEERING

michał_1 said:

I do agree that FreeMILL is lame. Just to play, you can use VisualCAM. In demo you can create all needed paths but there's no option to export any code. Something like a year ago I was evaluating CAM for company where I work... and since I couldn't test VisualCAM on our router, we've choose one of HSMs cam. In order to move forward (instead of complaining) I would try some products with HSM or try CamBam.

For linux CamBam is free, I haven't test Cam Bam, yet... but I will, since at home I've moved form Windows to Ubuntu (this is also reason why I'm using Onhape more often). Here is a link to CamBam gallery, it looks pretty convincing: http://www.cambam.info/screenshots/
and link to manual: http://www.cambam.info/doc/CamBam-0.9.8N.pdf
edit
I've just start reading about CamBam and it looks like I've been misguided (by this source: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Cam), there is free CamBam and CamBam+.

Does HSMs cam work with Onshape without having to buy another cad? And what does it cost? I mean, it is next to impossible to find out what that damn price is! I'd have to set my alarm to the middle of the night and actually CALL someone in a foreign country in order to get any information. That "Get A Quote" button is just mind blowing. I have never gotten a reply. ever. 
I mean, it feels like they don't want me as their customer. 
When i turned down a great offer for SW it was because Onshape promised that "no more dealing with pesky VARs, overpriced licences, weeks and weeks of waiting" and so on. Onshape is awesome and they care about their customers. You know exactly what you get.

CamBam is at the top of my list. CamBam Plus is $149 and they have a "buy now" button. This is the right way to do it.
Mastercam looks really good but when nobody can tell me what the price is doesn't matter.
CamWorks: is it $10000? who knows. They have one phone number i Europe but my German is not the greatest. My mistake.
If I wanted to buy a new car I would never go for a test drive without knowing the asking price.

I might be complaining but this is the right place to do it. I do not like the idea of an app store that doesn't sell apps.

michał_1

Sentence " I do not like the idea of an app store that doesn't sell apps." sounds much more to the point and I do agree. We should be able to get everything done in AppStore, only.
There are two more things I would like to say.
First, Onshape in order to catch SW and others, need to focus first on developing modeling tools. That's why they have to relay on partners when it comes to cam, renderings and others additional modules. Problem is that CAM software market looks as you described, completely outdated policies. Could Onshape choose others? maybe. But who volunteer? And which manager would reject offer form Mastercam?
Secondly, when I read your post I thought that you were complaining about lame free options. They are lame but if someone can afford router can also get decent CAM.
I wouldn't blame Onshape for lame apps,maybe just for execution.

michael3424

Are holes with NPT thread forms, along with corresponding drawing callouts on the short list for enhancements?  Needed them today and foresee doing a lot of them in the future.