Dimension streamlining

Ben_Misegades

When it comes to modifying dimensions, there are a few items that I personally would like to see changed, or at least have the option to turn certain functionality on and off:

- When modifying a dimension, I would like to be able to use ' and " for feet and inches, rather than having to type ft and in

- When modifying a dimension with addition or subtraction, you are currently required to type the units, i.e. the string 5in + 5 is not valid, it must read 5in + 5in which is tedious. 

- Modifications that have been made to a dimension are recorded. So if you started with 5in, added 1in, then added another 1in, if you go to modify that 7in dimension, the string reads 5in + 1in + 1in. You can imagine what that would look like if, like me, you tend to make many adjustments to dimensions. I would like to be able to at least turn that "memory" on and off. I believe it is there to preserve the initial design intent or dimension, but for me it just creates clutter.

- Because of the aforementioned "memory" of dimension adjustment, making modifications to a dimension with multiplication or division brings with it another layer of tediousness. If my new dimension is 7in, and I decide I want to halve that, I can't simply edit the dimension by adding /2 to the inside of it, because the string now reads 5in + 1in + 1in/2 which gives us 6.5in which is, of course, not what we want. The correct string has to be (5in + 1in + 1in)/2

I hope the issues that I'm asking to be looked at make sense to everyone

konstantin_shiriazdanov

I support that memorization and the strict need of quantity in any dimention is some kind of excessiveness. Would be better if by default any inserted number would obtain the quantity from the document settings. And the memorization of dimention input for example can be activated by special input syntax:"1+3" would be reduced to "4", but "=1+3" should not be reduced

lougallo

@ben_misegades435 There is an improvement for adding ' and " for Feet/inches.. however the two expressions above with and without the parenthesis are not the same value and shouldn't be.  Since we are storing the expression and not adding a calculator in the entry field, memorization methods do not apply here.  The expression is stored and evaluated so it can show the design of the dimension.  

I moved this out of the improvement voting so we could discuss the approach outlined in our numeric fields here:

https://cad.onshape.com/help/#numeric-fields.htm?Highlight=numeric

Jake_Rosenfeld

Hi Ben,

Just a minor adjustment that may or not make your workflow faster: attaching a unit to a number can sort of be thought of as a multiplicative operation (at least in terms of the order of operations of how that box is solved) so instead of writing 5in + 5in + 1in you can write (5 + 5 + 1) in

Not a huge time saver but everything helps right?

Ben_Misegades

I really do appreciate the feedback

@lougallo I may not have portrayed in my example specifically enough what I was taking issue with.

In OS, the process of starting with 5in, then adding 1in, then adding another 1in, gives me the following string when I go to edit that 7in dimension:

5in + 1in + 1in

What I would personally prefer to see is simply:

7in

If I were to want to now divide that new 7in value by 2, OS would require me to have the following string:

(5in + 1in + 1in)/2

What I would rather see is simply:

7in/2

I understand that OS does it this way to preserve the initial design intent, and for a lot of users that might actually be helpful. For me, however, it just slows me down, which is why I would ask that this functionality could be turned on or off.

Same goes for having to specify units all of the time. The only time that I feel it should be necessary to type in the specific unit that I'm using when doing something like editing a dimension, is when it is a unit different than the default. If my OS is set up to run in millimeters by default, I would think that I should never have to type in mm anywhere, and the only time that I do need to specify a dimension is when it's something other than millimeters. If I have a 100mm dimension that I want to add an inch it, I would expect to have to add +1" but if I'm adding 10mm to it, +10 really ought to be valid.

But that's just me 

john_mcclary

How about a keystroke combination like: shift+enter returns the calculated result back to the dimension. Rather than an on-off switch in the document properties...

Personally so far every time I edit a dim using +2, /2, etc.. I finish the dimension, read the result, then hard type it back into the dimension. Kinda gets tedious after a while. (Over simplified example, I'm not that bad at math )

At the same time I can see why you decided to have it remember the dimension as a equation string. I do want my equations left in memory for quickly changing something that actually uses math equations to determine the final size (example: pitch diameter of a sprocket). But the majority of the time it is coming off as an inconvenience when I just want the part to be 0.4375in smaller.

brucebartlett

john_mcclary said:

How about a keystroke combination like: shift+enter returns the calculated result back to the dimension. Rather than an on-off switch in the document properties...

I'd love something like: shift+enter to return the calculated value with no equation. I quite often calculate a value then retype it into the dialogue.

owen_sparks

I'm slightly wary of all the KB shortcuts being thrown about in various threads at the moment.  One nice thing about OnS is you can be aware of all the functions within a very short time.  If additional behaviour is invoked by various combinations of key presses then it's beginning to be obscured slightly.

I'd be more in favour of check-boxes or the like where a conscious decision is offered to the user as to what they would like to happen.  There are few things more frustrating that finding you've been doing something the hard way for months that could have been sooo much simpler.

( @cody_armstrong this is one great thing about your webinars in that you use OnS live in front of the audience.  Often I pick up as mutch from watching you use OnS as the actual topics themselves.  @philip_thomas actually went out of his way on his webinar to do things a slightly unusual way, just to show options.)

OwS

john_mcclary

owen_sparks said:

I'm slightly wary of all the KB shortcuts being thrown about in various threads at the moment.  One nice thing about OnS is you can be aware of all the functions within a very short time.  If additional behaviour is invoked by various combinations of key presses then it's beginning to be obscured slightly.

Yes, I agree it hides functionality to all those who do not follow the webinars / documentation...
there has been a lot of hidden functions like that throughout onshape so far. I guess I'm falling into that trap as well. Example: Holding shift to fine select mate connector points. Without a webinar I wouldn't have ever known.

But in the end, a checkbox on the dimension input dialogue would work just fine. I would still like the shift+enter shortcut as a secondary option for us keyboard junkies.

owen_sparks

john_mcclary said:

But in the end, a checkbox on the dimension input dialogue would work just fine. I would still like the shift+enter shortcut as a secondary option for us keyboard junkies.

How about the check-box but with a "shift+enter" upon entering a value to automatically check it?  Best of both worlds?

OwS.

owen_sparks

Or all new buttons could be greyed out until the user has singned to say they have read the documentation...

Ben_Misegades

How about two text fields instead of one when you edit the dimension? One giving you the final dimension, the other that shows the entire input string, which would also be useful for keeping track of variables, formulas, original design intent, etc.

john_mcclary

ben_misegades435 said:

How about two text fields instead of one when you edit the dimension? One giving you the final dimension, the other that shows the entire input string, which would also be useful for keeping track of variables, formulas, original design intent, etc.

Honestly 2 places to input may be more of a pain; making sure you typed in the correct filed each time. Especially for a new user. I mean, solidworks did a good job with their dimension input. In fact SW did too many options at the dimension prompt. I'm hoping OS can make something clean and friendly, and lightning fast.

3dcad

I would go with shift + enter and tell that when hovering input box. Also checkboxes make things more and more compicated and before you know - it takes 5 minutes to check all the boxes to input single dimension and of course it fails since you have chose conflicting options on input

Going on, if it was shift+enter, how would you work with variables (#myVar1+13)/#myVar2 ?