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Surfacing 2.0
Ben_Misegades
Member Posts: 133 ✭✭✭
I've made a similar "brain dump" thread for items that I feel would be nice to see in the next go-around for Sheet Metal.
I have far less experience CAD modeling surfaces than I do Sheet Metal, but even so, there are a few items that I feel would really kick Surfacing in OS up a notch when it comes time to address it again. Please forgive me if it sounds like a quote from a SolidWorks pamphlet, that's the software I have most of my experience with.
- Join multiple faces into one, like the "knit" feature in SW
- Ability to switch back and forth between solid and surface models. For example, modeling a solid cube and deleting one face now gives you an open cube "box" that is a surface model. Modeling a planar face back into the void and knitting it gives you the option to turn the model back into a solid. I've used this particular type of functionality in Solidworks a LOT and would really like to be able to work like that again.
- Something other than "Loft" to create a surface, such as Boundary Surface, perhaps. Needs to have the option to set end conditions, etc.
- Sketch or Edge selection improvements: a sort of "selection tool" option while picking profiles to loft that let's me pick multiple segments of a sketch or surface edge to use as a profile. If there is already a way to do this, then I apologize.
- Ability to insert fillets in a surface model would be nice
- Extend surfaces, by single/multiple/all edges
- Trim surfaces with other surfaces, etc.
- Ruled surfaces
- Not directly a surfacing feature, but to me very important for surfacing --> 3D sketching!
I'm sure others that do surfacing on the regular can add more
I have far less experience CAD modeling surfaces than I do Sheet Metal, but even so, there are a few items that I feel would really kick Surfacing in OS up a notch when it comes time to address it again. Please forgive me if it sounds like a quote from a SolidWorks pamphlet, that's the software I have most of my experience with.
- Join multiple faces into one, like the "knit" feature in SW
- Ability to switch back and forth between solid and surface models. For example, modeling a solid cube and deleting one face now gives you an open cube "box" that is a surface model. Modeling a planar face back into the void and knitting it gives you the option to turn the model back into a solid. I've used this particular type of functionality in Solidworks a LOT and would really like to be able to work like that again.
- Something other than "Loft" to create a surface, such as Boundary Surface, perhaps. Needs to have the option to set end conditions, etc.
- Sketch or Edge selection improvements: a sort of "selection tool" option while picking profiles to loft that let's me pick multiple segments of a sketch or surface edge to use as a profile. If there is already a way to do this, then I apologize.
- Ability to insert fillets in a surface model would be nice
- Extend surfaces, by single/multiple/all edges
- Trim surfaces with other surfaces, etc.
- Ruled surfaces
- Not directly a surfacing feature, but to me very important for surfacing --> 3D sketching!
I'm sure others that do surfacing on the regular can add more
5
Comments
Especially the "knit surfaces" option would be pretty much a game-changer.
I'm a Featurescript developer, and though Onshape provides limited tools for surface management even at the api layer, it is quite possible to create entities.
If 3d sketching would be useful even without some of the other features you mention, let me know your thoughts and maybe I could make a Featurescript
https://cad.onshape.com/documents/d17d93235d69e6ec8f815b80
This may behave unpredictably on some edges, but generally it works fine
IR for AS/NZS 1100