Improvements to Onshape - February 8th, 2017

john_mcclary

Sheet-metal is a great start. But I have a critique that has been bugging me since release, and I haven't heard anyone else bring this up.

Why are we forced to finish a sheet-metal part before we can use the majority of the modeling features? Was this a temporary solution to release sheet-metal early to shut up the community's begging? If so i'm ok with it for now. At least we have something to practice with until sheet-metal 2.0.

But Is there any hope in the near future to be able to use all of part studio's power house with active sheet-metal parts? Fillets, Boss-Extrudes, patterns, etc. ?
Or is this what we are left with? Or am I just the minority here?

OnShape is rapidly becoming my favorite cad package. I can't wait to see what you all do next!

emagdalenaC2i

I think this is not a temporary solution. It is just the first release of sheet metal, and it is a great and complete solution for sheet metal.
Of course, Onshape should add that features to sheetmetal and will do soon

But I like the idea of finish the sheet metal model. Thus all the features previous are shown in the flat model and all features after the "finish feature" will not shown in the flat model

NeilCooke

john_mcclary said:

Sheet-metal is a great start. But I have a critique that has been bugging me since release, and I haven't heard anyone else bring this up.

Why are we forced to finish a sheet-metal part before we can use the majority of the modeling features? Was this a temporary solution to release sheet-metal early to shut up the community's begging? If so i'm ok with it for now. At least we have something to practice with until sheet-metal 2.0.

But Is there any hope in the near future to be able to use all of part studio's power house with active sheet-metal parts? Fillets, Boss-Extrudes, patterns, etc. ?
Or is this what we are left with? Or am I just the minority here?

OnShape is rapidly becoming my favorite cad package. I can't wait to see what you all do next!

Hi @john_mcclary - The Finish Sheet Metal feature is there for adding post forming operations, like cutting holes at an angle or welding corners which would not appear in the flat pattern. We are working on allowing more core modeling functions on sheet metal parts and each feature will be released as soon as it becomes available. 

owen_sparks

NeilCooke said:

Hi @john_mcclary - The Finish Sheet Metal feature is there for adding post forming operations, like cutting holes at an angle or welding corners which would not appear in the flat pattern. We are working on allowing more core modeling functions on sheet metal parts and each feature will be released as soon as it becomes available. 

I can appreciate the intent with the finish option but am not yet convinced it's the best way.  (I may be wrong, it's early days.)

"Finish" is clean and simple to understand but what if you have a sheet metal feature that is dependent on a welded feature?  (Say you have a hole you want to position relative to a widget you weld on.)  Now the hole has to be after the welded feature is added in the CAD but needs to be in the sheet metal part, which is aftwer the part has been finished.

Sure there are workflows that would avoid this, but perhaps a check-box on each standard feature of "apply to sheetmetal part" would be more flexible?

Owen S.

john_mcclary

owen_sparks said:

"Finish" is clean and simple to understand but what if you have a sheet metal feature that is dependent on a welded feature?  (Say you have a hole you want to position relative to a widget you weld on.)  Now the hole has to be after the welded feature is added in the CAD but needs to be in the sheet metal part, which is aftwer the part has been finished.

Owen S.

@owen_sparks i think i understand what you are saying. That would be a problem if you needed to add the feature in-context after finish as well. short of re sorting the tree so that the widget comes first; i think it would be appropriate to include the option to re-activate the part in the same mannor as finishing. 

I wonder if OS is planning on such a feature

lana

@owen_sparks
Thank you for bringing up this issue. We'll have to think of the way to solve it.