Improvements to Onshape - February 11th, 2016

NeilCooke

Strap yourselves in folks - we've got a bumper update for you today with something for everybody. Ready? Let's go....

1. NEW Tangent Mate - Create cams and followers, barrel cams, slots, and paths with this all new mate type.
   
   https://youtu.be/-cGwhKbZhQI
   
   
2. NEW Feature Pattern - Pattern features with adaptive end conditions and variables!
   
   https://youtu.be/XsSMI4GiObg
   
   
3. NEW Transform Sketch - Translate and rotate sketch entities and quickly remove all external references.
   
   https://youtu.be/TfroCeiCSQc
   
   
4. UPDATED Measure Tool - Measure between Mate Connectors and between hole centers and faces.
   
   https://youtu.be/-wnpp58BA4c
   
   
5. NEW Zoom to Window - Drag a box around the area you want to zoom in to.
   
   https://youtu.be/Y5IOI_kk0PE
   
   
6. NEW Document Description - Add a description for the entire Document and view from the Documents page.
   
   https://youtu.be/vilriUoVU5o
   
   
7. MANY Drawing Improvements - Including views of Part Studios, Dimension holes on angled faces, and more.
   
   https://youtu.be/s-twSWgD57o
   

Honorable mentions:

• Sketch entities and dimensions can now be deleted from the RMB menu (keeps your hands off the delete key).
  
  
  

• Mate groups now update when instances are deleted (does not turn red to indicate missing parts).
  

• Drawing Templates now have search support for Teams.
  

• Centerline dashes now match the size of Centermarks in Drawings.
  
  
  

• All cells in Title Blocks now have blank, correctly formatted multi-line text notes - just double-click to edit.
  
  
  

  
  

We hope you enjoy using these new features - as always, all feedback is welcome. Waiting for a particular new feature? Please use the Feedback tool to request it - we're already 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.

_Ðave_

Nice Update

Thanks
_Dave_

PeteYodis

What specifically do you like extra special @_Dave_ ???   

_Ðave_

Actually you guys did a great improvement all around, Cam Mates wow, Feature pattern with variables very nice. Transforming sketches nice too, hopes it will work on keeping a dxf import togeather. measuring from mate connectors is pretty cool too.I didn't get as much drawing updates that I wished for but converting splines to arcs was much needed and quite welcome, not sure I like the idea of having to use the refine drawing icon to accomplish this but I'll give it a try before passing any judgement.

 Thanks
_Dave_ 

NeilCooke

Sorry bad video script on my part - you don't have to refine the graphics first

_Ðave_

Also please stay focused on document management, All the great stuff isn't much good if I can't get the IT guys can't deal with organizing the documents. 

PeteYodis

Thanks for the feedback @_Dave_

øyvind_kaurstad

Great update! It's a pity that we can't get the new features in old documents without having to wait until the features magically emerge.

philip_thomas

Oyvind - we are very happy that you like the new features so much that you can't wait to use them on your existing documents!
We suggest learning to use them now on new documents, and then on your existing documents once they have been upgraded.
The great thing about this process is that your documents are never unavailable! (a stark contrast to the world of installed software!)

PeteYodis

_Dave_ said:

Also please stay focused on document management, All the great stuff isn't much good if I can't get the IT guys can't deal with organizing the documents. 

Can you expand on this @_Dave_ ?  I think I know what you mean, but we want to be sure.

DriesV

Very nice update!
Feature pattern is my favorite.  

DriesV

And OMG for tangent mate!!

Dries

øyvind_kaurstad

I've been working on a large model with a lot of smooth sweeping surfaces and profiles. While I have had issues (like slowdowns), the visual representation of my model has been excellent. Yesterday I wished for this update to become applied to my model, but now that it has, I retract that statement. The reason is simple, this update has completely and utterly made my model ugly because of bad tesselation.

So Onshape, is this a temporary thing while documents are being transferred to the new version, or did you do any detrimental changes to the tesselation algorithms? I'm on the verge of crying here, as I'm looking at my model.

Before:


After the update:

DriesV

The approach of patterning sketches and variables (and creating them in a specific fashion and order) to create complex feature patterns is interesting, but also extremely unintuitive and convoluted. I hope this isn't Onshape's final answer for complex patterns?  

From a technical POV, very neat though, but this should become WAY easier to use...
From a UX POV, I think it would help a lot if the interrelations between features, and how variables interact with features, were represented in a graphical/nodal way. Right now, you have to go through every single feature, every single variable, every single dimension, every single feature parameter... to understand how the patterns are constructed. A simple history tree doesn't cut it at all, I'm afraid.

Dries

NeilCooke

@DriesV - I think I'm right in saying that it would be impossible to do this in any other CAD system without writing some complex macros? If you think about what the pattern is doing - it's incrementing the variable by a specified amount, so the only thing you need to do is make sure that you define the variable increment and reorder it so it rebuilds before the features that use it. For the 1% of people who will use it, that's not too onerous, as long as you know how to do it?

DriesV

NeilCooke said:

@DriesV - I think I'm right in saying that it would be impossible to do this in any other CAD system without writing some complex macros? If you think about what the pattern is doing - it's incrementing the variable by a specified amount, so the only thing you need to do is make sure that you define the variable increment and reorder it so it rebuilds before the features that use it. For the 1% of people who will use it, that's not too onerous, as long as you know how to do it?

Yes, that is true, but right now figuring out how the patterns work is not entirely obvious. The logic (embedded in the history and features) is kind of opaque, because you have to go through each and every feature/parameter/dimension.

In that way, macros are more transparent. All the code is right there, in a single view.
Does that make sense?
The pattern features in that public doc depend on a lot of variables and logic embedded in sketches, other features... It's just not directly obvious how everything is connected.

Just trying to be constructive.

Dries

NeilCooke

It does make sense, but the beauty of this solution is that you can make your own pattern with minimal effort and tweak the values until you get what you want. Some of the more complex examples require a little thought, but macros are generally "example specific" and you would spend a day writing a macro for each of the examples I made, only to find that they won't work as you expect on your next project.

We should run a "complex pattern" competition   

DriesV

Yes, I can see how this approach is more robust.
Still, I think Onshape should consider node based editing (or something else more graphical) for visualizing stuff like this.  

I think it could make a lot of sense.
Some inspiration: http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony/3/

Dries

øyvind_kaurstad

@NeilCooke Could you say something about the tesselation issue that I mentioned? Was the algorithms changed for this version?

NeilCooke

øyvind_kaurstad - not to my knowledge - is it on all your models or just this one? I can't tell if my models look any different. Please raise a support ticket and share your model to see if they can shed any light on it

chrisjh777

Tangent Mate!!! I've long wished for this feature.

øyvind_kaurstad

@NeilCooke It might be only this model, but that is also my largest design. The pictures I posted are actually both from the same document. The blue part is in it's own part studio (and looks fine), the grey is a derived version of the same part, but it sits in a part studio with lots of other parts as well. Before the update was applied to my document, this large part studio (with the derived part) rendered beautifully. Now, after the update, it looks quite crappy.

I can't really share the document with support, because I have to copy/delete it very often to keep the size down (I don't want it public). A fresh copy is merely 6 MB, but after a short while the history grows and makes it too large for the free account. I still feel very strongly that Onshape is missing out on a lot of good money by not giving us a middle-tier account type with a bit more headroom than the free account. Working on this project really highlights this issue for me, and I am contemplating to try other tools now (Fusion 360 being the only real alternative). But that's a digression, sorry.

Edit to add: I have now submitted a ticket on a fresh copy of the document, and shared that copy with support, so that I can continue the copy/delete workflow on another copy of the document. Which is tedious, but there are no other options.

ilya_baran

@DriesV While Neil showed how far you can take feature patterns + variables today, the common case of feature-patterning something like an up-to-next extrude works just as simply as it does in other systems.  And we will have specialized complex patterns also (like sketch-driven pattern, fill pattern, etc.)

But you have an excellent point that is not lost on us: we've been making powerful tools for creating complicated parametric geometry, and now our challenge is to build tools that make it easy to figure out what is going on in such a model.

3dcad

PeteYodis said:

What specifically do you like ... ???   

This is like stuffing mouth full of candies and try to tell what tastes the best

Great update, can't wait to push these new features to the limit..!

_Ðave_

@pete_yodis  i'm having issues selling the whole Onshape concept to the company management. Namely when IT sees the document list he just shakes his head. They have much more issues but that first impression is a hard one to overcome.

 There's been much discussion going on for a long time about file folders vs tag and search. Personally i'm not sure which is best just that at this point anything other than the infinitely scrolling list would be welcome.

_Dave_

philip_thomas

_Dave_ I gave you the +1 one on that one Yes we need to significantly improve this!

zoltan_szabo

Gents, These are also awesome updates! Thank you for your efforts.

One thing which is really important for everyone, I guess:

Is there any potencial to improve significantly the drawing performance?

Because now the 3D modeling is quite good, but the drawing handling is terrible slow. I'm locating in Hungary, Europe with 50Mbit/s connection, so probably in the US it's not that slow, but others also wrote the same feelings...

Zoltan

fastwayjim

I was teaching a class in Onshape yesterday, and we were doing the pattern tool. Imagine my surprise when I pulled down the menu and saw THREE choices! HAH! I love presents!

Also, tangent mate is welcomed with open arms, and the pattern + variable is awesome!

Keep up the awesome work!

shashank_aarya

Feature pattern, awesome!!

chris_8

I love the Transform Sketch feature.   Thanks for adding it!   

adam_mercier

NeilCooke said:

øyvind_kaurstad - not to my knowledge - is it on all your models or just this one? I can't tell if my models look any different. Please raise a support ticket and share your model to see if they can shed any light on it

I noticed this too on some of my models, making sketching from projected splines entities quite bad. I'll file a ticket for the file where I noticed this.