Feature requests: Variable name niceties

jeff_street

1. Auto-complete (e.g. in entry field for sketch dimensions)
2. Auto-Propogate name changes through existing instances (e.g. if it becomes necessary to change a variable name, it's currently necessary to manually replace every instance of the the old name with the new name).

Jake_Rosenfeld

Hi Jeff,

Both of these would be very useful, can you make an Improvement Request from the menu on the right side of this page? -->

p.s. #2 is often called 'Refactoring a variable name' when programming.  Definitely a good feature request.

owen_sparks

Link to an existing request for #2:-

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/5871/cascade-variable-name-changes-to-instances-of-its-use#latest

Cheers, OwS

jeff_street

Found autocomplete in the improvement requests section too. Added comments there. Feel free to delete this post.

3dcad

Are you people satisfied with the way Onshape came up with variables?

I think it's good that they gave us something but I certainly hope for more than just auto-complete and other naming improvements.

I wan't to be able to reference any given value in other input dialogs.
I wan't to be able to do this without manually creating any variables.
I wan't it to be flawless and intuitive, if in same sketch input dialog open use LMB click to add 'link' to other dimension, easily pick up dim from another sketch, use copy&paste special to add link to dimension etc..
I wan't them to be local (ps or assembly wide), global (document/workspace/version wide), environmental (user/cross doc wide) or company parameter (accessible by all users under same company)

All this needs a lot of thinking, especially environmental and company wide parameters since they would interfere with previously created versions.

I'm happy to wait for few more 'standard features' like configurations and links to current ver of doc or equivalent before renovating the variable system but I certainly think current implementation of variables to be at 'hello world' state.  

konstantin_shiriazdanov

In my ideal parametric cad (which exist only in my imagination) variables is just a part of high level programming language (like Python or Wolfram Language) which accompanies the design process. That high level programming invironment should allow advanced algebraic operation, generation of equation-defined curves, surfaces, volumes, generation of tables, refferencing and assignment of feature and sketch parameters and other document properties. One may say that Feature Script allows something from what was described, but for me it is a bit complicated and saturated syntactic peculiarities.

john_mcclary

3dcad said:

Are you people satisfied with the way Onshape came up with variables?

I think OnShape was pretty clever with their approach to variables.
SW likes to store them all in one fancy dialogue box. which was convenient when making mass edits quickly. But was hidden enough where every time I used them and someone else used my model. They would have to ask where the equation table was located. (Yea I know, seriously). But with the equations on the feature tree anyone can quickly see where a variable is edited (unless you bury it between many irrelevant features muahahah..hah.hehm.hmm.. excuse me..)

And yes I agree global variables would be a good thing.
But maybe being able to cross reference other part studios would be good enough, if not more powerful eh?
Example:
Make a part studio called global that's filled with variables.
Then reference them in another by means of #global.Length
Then sometime later reference #partstudio1.patternQTY in an assembly
I would say that would kill 2 birds with one stone.

And autocomplete of any variable would be awesome too. (like intelisense in visualstudio)

Even at it's "Hello World" state, they are pretty powerful. I like how they have arrays set up.
But they have a way to go before they have all of the functions inside of an Excell cell... Which would be my ideal version of a variables functionality.

thomas_miglinci

I would also like to have a way of easy editing/adding of variables - the available dialog is okay for a small amount, but if you are going to have many variables it is a pain in the a...

brett_sutton

Adding a variable whilst in a sketch would also be rather handy. I'm forever having to exit the sketch to add another variable. Given that sketches is where you use variables most often it seems like we should have the option here.