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Improvements to Onshape - April 22, 2015
lougallo
Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 2,005 
Thank you again for all the feedback you have sent in and we are excited to hear what you think of the update we just pushed. This update improves a few existing features like incrementing dimensions and DWG/DXF output in addition to some shiny new capabilities! So let's start unwrapping presents, shall we?
Highlights include:
Highlights include:
- Sketch patterns. (linear / circular with parameters that can be updated at any time...it even works after deleting the "seed" instance)
- Comments! Add multiple comments per workspace and get threaded replies under each. There is also a new share option called "View and comment". More to come with the comments feature in the next few updates so stay tuned.
- Scale - Apply uniform scale to parts from selected point. (under Transform)
- Change increment value on dimensions with SHIFT ( x 10 ) & CTRL ( x 0.1 ) with scroll wheel.
- Option to opt-out of screenshot in Feedback (text only comments)
- DWG/DXF output uses AutoCAD Release 11 format (to increases compatibility)
- Export help in HTML/PDF formats (lower right corner - printer icon)
- Feedback tool now in Help (when signed into Onshape)
Lou Gallo / PD/UX - Support - Community / Onshape, Inc.
Tagged:
1
Comments
(totally not the point - looks great, so excited!)
I really like the look of the UI for the sketch pattern tool, for a start.
I would habitually roll my eyes when using the Sldwks one, (it wasn't just the UI, in that case, but it was tragic) and dreaded being asked by others to demistify it. My fervent wish was that they would come up with a 'clean sheet of paper' rethink, instead of endlessly tinkering with a bad concept. So I guess someone had to do it!
I look forward to trying the 'variable granularity' of the scroll wheel, something I was keen to see... I would like to see it extended to dragging (eg for extrude depths) My experience to date with the scroll wheel in metric in OnS has been that it was unusable -- particularly for dimensions in sketches, where I only got one swipe before it reverted to zooming - not quite so bad for dimension entry for extrude distance and other features, but the metric increments were uselessly infinitesimal.
Scaling - Yay! (Difficult to 'workaround' that particular gap)
I guess scaling non-uniformly will take a bit longer ... I have a project I would like to try in OnS that requires it ... but as always, I trust the team will make sure the cake is baked before putting it on the table.
Comment facility for models: fantastic. Keen to see how comment locations cope with 3D view rotation ... in other packages, non-attached annotations tend to fly around like a loose cannon in a beam-on gale...
dxf profile export R11: Thanks ! OnS is living up to the promise of responsiveness - recovering quickly from small stumbles strikes me as a crucial factor, which should quickly pull you guys level with (and then ahead of) the "annual updates" pack.
Feedback in Help: I reckon if other packages had been able to harvest and take careful note of this, easily and in quantity, it would have made a big diff to their documentation (perhaps I would except SolidEdge: I was always highly impressed with the quality of their Help)
All in all, a big leap in this surge ... forza Onshape!
A first impression on linear patterns: love it! It's nine ways better than others I've tried...
One question: is there a way to flip the propagation arrows 180 degrees, without irrevocably losing their snap (to vertical / horizontal)?
It currently seems that unless the chosen "seed" corner is bottom left, propagation is at an arbitrary angle, and the user has to go back and manually constrain the axis or axes.
I suppose one solution would be to permit the propagation directions to resnap, but I can see that is not always ideal. (eg when the intention is to slew one of the arrows only a few degrees from H/V)
It would be interesting to have a straw poll of current users: how many had discovered LMB flipping of manipulators, and understood it to be general UI feature?
Yay! the behaviour for dimension entry is transformed, it's now REALLY usable.
The increments turn out to be 'scaled', in other words the amount is not fixed, but changes gears, increasing stepwise as the dimension increases.
This is a promising idea, and certainly simplifies the control set, although it does introduce an element of potential confusion: you cannot rely on a particular modifier affecting the dimension at the significant digit level you expect.
Once that's optimised and bedded down, I'd very much like to see the same granularity (at least as a user-specified global option) applied to dragging. Taking the case of linear pattern, this would mean no resort would be needed to the numeric keys: you could quickly drag it to the exact desired size with the manipulator arrows, aided only by the modifier keys to "change gears" as the desired value drew near.
At present, as soon as you start dragging, you are forced to resort to numerical keys to get rid of extraneous digits, otherwise something like 136.431 is taken as the starting point for further granular increments, making this workflow unusable.
The values need to be controllable by the user.
Dave
Ariel, WA
Though I am from AU. and metric being the standard my age ;-) and some of my stuff mean imperial measurements still feature so I would add my voice to David_Solstrom's; imperial increments would be very useful. Choice, in how you can work, in CAD of any ilk, is important.
Have a query about the Circular pattern. When using polygons the construction lines created by the command appear to randomly attach to an outer portion of the geometry not the centre point as (I think) would be more appropriate. I do seem to be able to reposition it by manipulating the constraints; is there something I am not doing correctly?
If it is working as designed do others feel it would be better for the centre of the polygon to be used as the default?
That said, all the new features are good steps forward, thank you.
TVP, Onshape R&D
I only get one click (increment) before the input box closes and the change is accepted, whereas I want to keep rolling. I am not depressing the mousewheel, just rolling it.
I'm running a low-end Chromebook and an Intellimouse Optical Explorer.
It works as advertised when I'm entering a number the first time. The problem only comes when editing existing numbers.
I'll look into it further but I'm going to be tied up with other things for a while, and I thought I'd raise it on the forum to see if it's not just an isolated incompatibility issue.
It's extremely reassuring to get such quick responses .... also, somehow, knowing that a tool's antibodies are working away healing it, frees up user RAM (grey matter) to focus on what IS working, which is basically pretty much everything.
Good control, great stuff thanks.
Comment locations - I don't seem to be able to link a comment to a feature. Is this possible?
Dries
Also see the thread on how we should evolve comments in Onshape https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/640/comments-how-should-they-evolve-next
ON EDIT It's strange how the forum software gives the correct preview for italics, but when it pushes the comment out to the thread, it emboldens it as well.
Screenshot, patterning cabinet shelf