Improvements to Onshape - November 21st, 2016

NeilCooke

With Thanksgiving just around the corner we've brought this release forward to give you something to do during your time off! Great set of usability improvements this time around with something for everybody...

TRANSFORM MATE CONNECTORS

You can now include Mate Connectors when using the Transform feature to move parts or Derived parts in a Part Studio. This ensures that the Mate Connector remains in the correct place and can be reused for subsequent feature operations.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/3mrxnys7qp?embedType=async&videoWidth=640

DRAWINGS

Drawings gets it's usual round of great new enhancements. In this latest update we've changed the default font, made view and sheet property dialogs easier to discover, set tolerance values to automatically update when switching dimension units, and... wait for it... added hole callouts!

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/mj5mf15pym?embedType=async&videoWidth=640

TAP THROUGH ALL

The tap depth for a through all hole can now be set to through all. Unchecking the option enables you to manually set the tap depth as before. Please watch the Drawings video above to see the new hole dialog in action.

DEUTSCHE SPRACHUNTERSTÜTZUNG (GERMAN LANGUAGE SUPPORT)

All menus, dialogs, tooltips and help throughout Onshape are now available in German. To set your language preferences, go to the menu under your user name in the top right corner, then select Manage account > Preferences >  Language.

PLANES WITH NAMES

All user-defined Planes now display their feature names on screen to help you quickly find the Plane you're looking for without having to search the Feature List. This is very useful if you have a lot of Planes in your Part Studio or you want to call out important features like datums.  To reduce screen clutter, Planes created with a Pattern feature do not display names.

MORE PAPER SIZES IN PRINT OPTIONS

When printing images of Part Studios and Assemblies, you now get an expanded list of paper sizes to choose from.

DEFAULT EXPORT SETTINGS

Onshape will now remember the last used settings when you export a Part or an Assembly. If you only ever use STL output to send models to your 3D printer or you must export to a particular version of Parasolid, the values you set will be remembered and reused every time you need to export a model.

IMPORT WORKFLOW IMPROVEMENTS

When you import data into Onshape, all messages regarding upload, import and translation success are now all contained within the Notifications flyout. This workflow makes the import process easier to understand and provides one location to view the progress and status of each import.

ROLL TO HERE / ROLL TO END PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

The rollback bar in Part Studios now regenerates parts significantly faster. In some tests, the speed of model regeneration has been increased by an order of magnitude when using Roll to here and Roll to end.

MESH IMPORT IMPROVEMENTS

Mesh import now handles more test cases. Used in conjunction with STL Workbench from the Onshape App Store, a significantly higher percentage of meshes will now import into Onshape and create a Mesh in a Part Studio.

DRAWING DIMENSIONS PERFORMANCE

Adding dimensions in drawings is now much faster especially on section views. Once the dimension has been placed, the dimension text appears instantly and moving dimensions around is much more responsive.

PERFORMANCE CHECK

You can now check the compatibility and relative performance of your computer and graphics card by visiting https://cad.onshape.com/check - your graphics card will be checked and rated based on our standard WebGL tests. You can then determine if you need to upgrade your hardware if you are working on very large assemblies and need better graphics performance.

FEATURESCRIPT HORIZONTAL_ENUM

A dropdown menu in a FeatureScript dialog can now be displayed as "tabs" (the same way the New/Add/Remove/Intersect options are displayed in the Extrude dialog). Simply add "UIHint" : "HORIZONTAL_ENUM" to your annotation. For example:

<div>annotation { "Name" : "Form Type", "UIHint" : "HORIZONTAL_ENUM" }
<pre class="CodeBlock"><code>definition.formType is FormType;

APP SUPPORT LINKS

If you are having trouble accessing any of the apps you are subscribed to from the Onshape App Store, a link to the app developer's support site will now be displayed in your Onshape Document to help you contact them for assistance.

IMPROVEMENT REQUESTS

Have an idea for a great new feature? Great! Simply head over to the Improvement Requests category in the forum and write up your idea for others to vote on. If an idea similar to yours has been added previously, a description will pop-up as you type. You can then review the original suggestion and add to it or if your idea is significantly different you can carry on adding your own. While you're there, you can also vote on other submitted improvement requests. This is an invaluable resource for us, so we know what's important to you.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/dtw2wjc997?embedType=async&videoWidth=640

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.

3dcad

Thanks!

bruce_williams

OS - you just made for an even better Thanksgiving!  A bunch of nice stuff...

brian_brady

Your lucky I live too far away to drive to OnShape HQ and kiss the team that added hole callouts. It works great.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

brian_brady

Can the next step in hole evolution be to keep tap information if a countersink or counterbore is changed when starting with a standard ISO or UN threaded hole? That would be nice. Especially now that hole callouts exist in drawings.

Jason_S

If you click the update button in the drawing the information should update.

PeteYodis

@brian_brady I think you are referring to the tap information persisting in the hole feature dialogue when you switch hole type/standard and then return, is that what you mean?

Andrew_Enslow_3DS

Performance Check is cool. I just opened up different browsers and tested all of them. This will be REALLY useful when testing computers in stores!

Thanks for the drawing updates as well.

brucebartlett

Great list of improvements.

I like that transform mate connectors, I have desired to do this but haven't added a request, thank's for who ever did. I hope I can now also hide mate connectors and move them when the are derived as well. Look forward to playing with this.

chris_8

Default Export Settings - will be saved as default for the current browser, or will be saved as the default for my account wherever I might log in? 

brian_brady

PeteYodis said:

@brian_brady I think you are referring to the tap information persisting in the hole feature dialogue when you switch hole type/standard and then return, is that what you mean?

Kind of. I want to be able to add a custom size chamfer for a tapped hole whose purpose is to create a lead-in not for the head of a screw. I cannot currently do that an still have a tapped hole. As soon as any change is made to the countersink or counterbore of a tapped hole the thread disappears. I would still have to create a manual note in a drawing for threaded holes. Not fun. I think selecting a standard ISO or inch hole should just fill in the blanks as a starting point, but the designer/engineer should have control of the values after that, not the software.

brian_brady

Can we get OnShape to remember that we hardly ever use part mirroring or patterning and almost always use feature or face mirroring or patterning? Or just automatically switch to the most correct one based on what is selected. It is pretty obvious that I don't want a part pattern if I have a hole selected.

jakeramsley

chris_8 said:

Default Export Settings - will be saved as default for the current browser, or will be saved as the default for my account wherever I might log in? 

The export settings are stored with the user, not the browser.

viru

Great list of improvements. Thank you very much Onshape team

brucebartlett

brian_brady said:

Can we get OnShape to remember that we hardly ever use part mirroring or patterning and almost always use feature or face mirroring or patterning? Or just automatically switch to the most correct one based on what is selected. It is pretty obvious that I don't want a part pattern if I have a hole selected.

That's a great idea, I nearly always do an "offset" rather than "translate" with the "Move face" command and would love Onshape to remember this just for me.

PeteYodis

@brian_brady Are you requesting a chamfer addition to the hole feature? Also, if you add a chamfer as a separate feature after a hole feature, the hole callout is still available on the smaller concentric diameter in the drawing. Obviously it won't have a chamfer spec in it, though.

brucebartlett

Just watched @NeilCooke 's Drawing video did anyone notice the toolbar at the 2 minute mark?

NeilCooke

@brucebartlett whatever do you mean?!?!   I think you imagined it.

john_rousseau

@brucebartlett - There will be a black van pulling up to your house shortly. The nice men inside are going to have you look into a bright light. I promise, this won't hurt a bit. 

-John

emagdalenaC2i

Just editing the video to show the what's new in spanish... I have to do it again!!
@brucebartlett , you owe me one... We will talk tomorrow to discuss the Onshape and Odoo integration and we can talk about whatever toolbar you have ever imagined ;-)

billy2

So this was my first exposure to the new updates:


And it didn't even get mentioned.  Detachable feature tree.

Does the graphics window update properly? Does the resize window event handler work? Will zoom all work? The answer is yes to all.

Not sure why they did this, maybe now Onshape is compatible for left handed people?

3dcad

brucebartlett said:

Just watched @NeilCooke 's Drawing video did anyone notice the toolbar at the 2 minute mark?

Yep, he doesn't have any FS features in quick launch bar - I'm shocked

chris_8

Great updates!

owen_sparks

chris_8 said:

Was the shortcut key <n>  "View Normal to Sketch Plane"  removed from the sketch functions as part of this update?  That's one of my most commonly used shortcut keys 

 @chris_8 Don't think so, it still works for me.

Owen S.

chris_8

owen_sparks said:

chris_8 said:

Was the shortcut key <n>  "View Normal to Sketch Plane"  removed from the sketch functions as part of this update?  That's one of my most commonly used shortcut keys 

 @chris_8 Don't think so, it still works for me.

Owen S.

Thanks for the quick reply.   2 minutes later I opened FF and it worked there.  So I reopened Chrome and it worked again.   Momentary hiccup on my end

Even_Inventas

Maybe said already, but "Default export settings" should also work for Drawings. I usually export PDF and every time I must change from DWG which seems to be default.

Thanks!

NeilCooke

@Jakob_Inventas - drawings were not included in this update, but will be soon

michael3424

Thanks for these updates, especially the default export settings and the hole callouts.  I've been using the former extensively the past day or two and for a little thing, it sure makes exporting more convenient.

3dexter

billyrides said:

So this was my first exposure to the new updates:


And it didn't even get mentioned.  Detachable feature tree.

Does the graphics window update properly? Does the resize window event handler work? Will zoom all work? The answer is yes to all.

Not sure why they did this, maybe now Onshape is compatible for left handed people?

It would be great to be able to hide the feature tree as in SolidWorks and other CAD software.

jesse_labrocca

Looks great!
[img]https://greed.host/lol.jpg?v=5[/img]