Improvements to Onshape - July 6th, 2017

cody_armstrong

We have an awesome update for you!  This update includes major new surfacing tools, a new drawing view tool, improvements to Loft, Hole feature, and more. Let's check it out.

FILL

You can now create a surface defined by a boundary of edges or curves.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/393p878uxu

ENCLOSE

Create a solid part from an enclosed selection of surfaces or planes.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/ytmctcbiyz

GUIDES AND END CONDITIONS IN LOFT

You can now use a combination of guides and end conditions in the Loft command.  In the past, you had to choose one or the other.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/vogp8sj841

SECTION VIEWS AS NAMED VIEWS

If you are in a Section view, and create a Named view, this will be saved with the Named view.  Meaning when you return to your Named view, the Section view state is also restored.  Great if you find yourself repeatedly creating the same Section view.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/6dqbxhsgrw

HOLE FEATURE IMPROVEMENTS

There were many improvements to Hole feature with this update.  Including new standard hole sizes, and the ability to create holes in sheet metal parts.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/j3i90p5o9g

SECTION VIEW IMPROVEMENTS

You'll find a new "Angular" section view type in Onshape Drawings.  This option allows you to create section views at an angle. Also added with this update is the ability to change a view's label.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/zx7arvoklv

COPY/PASTE CONTEXT MENU IN ONSHAPE DRAWINGS

You can now right-click "Copy" and right-click "Paste" entities in Onshape Drawings.  In this past this was limited to keyboard shortcuts.



WELD SYMBOL IMPROVEMENTS

A few important improvements to Weld symbols were added with this update.  Including live updates to the Weld symbol preview, as well as support for staggered welds.





ORDERED ARRAY OF FEATURESCRIPT PARAMETERS

The foundation has been laid to allow you to make per selection changes to parameters in Onshape while creating a feature.  This means you can have different settings for each selection within a dialog.  Currently, you can only see this in the Fill command (where you can make "per edge" continuity choices), but we are working on more features with this capability. Below is an example of the custom "Port Feature" that has been modified to allow the user to change port size for each selection.




PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Performance has been improved in several areas including assemblies, drawings, holes and more.

Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and let us know what you think!  

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new Documents and over the next few days these features will also be available in Documents created before the date of this update.

darren_13

Awesome update! Interesting featurescript addition here too, cheers guys.

Wink

I need this update, specifically, it doesn't seem to be available in us-west-2, when will I see it?

cody_armstrong

@Wink  New features are live for new Documents right now and existing Documents after they have been upgraded (normally a few days).

derek_ward

Great improvement Onshape team! 

Wink

@cody_armstrong Thanks, creating a new project did the trick.

albjerre

Yeah. Finally proper surface modelling. Now we only need 3d sketches.

Pascoe_Design

Thanks for a really excellent update - now the surfacing tools are looking very good!
For the future, together with 3D sketches, we really really need the ability to show surfaces in drawings.  

john_mcclary

Awesome stuff as usual

3dit_software

Thanks for the update. Special thanks for
1. Holes in Sheet Metal
2. Loft improvements
3. Fill

As I'm using a lot of pins for alignment, I hope the next update will expand the hole feature to pin holes (clearance & press-fit)

john_mcclary

Or just let us have more options under "Custom"
checkbox for thread with diameter / pitch / depth (that shows up on drawings and hole callout)
Textbox for notes that can show up in the drawings hole callout ("press fit" / "slip fit" / "Fit to sub detail 16513_a"... etc..)

That way if they are missing a thread size ... ahem.. M18x1.. M12x1.... We can still call it out in design  using custom hole option.
Then OS won't have to worry about EVERY hole possibility. 

3dcad

Great update!

For the holes I would like to see quick menu for say 10 user holes - for me that would be all I need in 95% of time. User hole should include all data so it's just one click to proceed + edit if needed (preset values).

And I had also something else in my mind.. what was that.. um.. yeah, CONFIGURATIONS - I'm ready if you're ready

daniel_splawski

albjerre said:

Yeah. Finally proper surface modelling. Now we only need 3d sketches.

How would 3d sketches work? 

bryan_lagrange

Great update. Kudos on hole command for sheet metal! Keep the sheet metal enhancements coming!

ilya_baran

One additional change that we made with this update is that you can now set variables to more types of things -- arrays, maps, strings, and functions.  For example, if you set the variable gapClearance to function(length) { return length * 1.15 + 0.1 in; } then you can use
 #gapClearance(1.5 in) as an expression in later features.  Also, as a result of this, the parametric curve and surface custom features no longer need the suppressed variable step to work (@mahir, you may wish to update the documentation to reflect this).

owen_sparks

Awesome, like those a lot, thanks  

Beer o'clock Devs?

Owen S.

mahir

@ilya_baran nice! Now those FS won't be so clunky to use. I'll update documentation shortly.

Update: The documentation no longer references the suppressed variable. This works sooo much better now. 

konstantin_shiriazdanov

@ilya_baran now we need expandable string input fields in features and dimentions, and autocomplete to manage such long expressions

SledDriver

" now we need expandable string input fields in features and dimensions, and autocomplete to manage such long expressions"

2nd'd

And can we PLEASE have indicators in the feature list AND in the Variable edit dialog box for when a variable is defined by a function, rather than a static value! The Variable edit dialog STILL shows only the final value until you actually click on the variable. Even better, have two lines - one for the expression, and one for the evaluated value. The variable below is set to 2*3, but there is zero indication of that an expression exists. This is error prone and makes things unnecessarily difficult. Surely on our big modern monitors we can afford an extra line in the dialog box, and a flag in the Feature list. :-)

ilya_baran

@konstantin_shiriazdanov I don't think we'll go down the path of every expression field becoming a tiny feature studio.  If the object you're creating doesn't fit in the expression box, a custom feature is the way to go I think.

billy2

Now there are no reasons to use Solidworks any longer, it's just a bad habit at this point.

robert_morris

@ilya_baran I think what @konstantin_shiriazdanov is describing is the fact that if you put something simple like "#myVariable1 * (#myVariable2 + #myVariable3)" in the expression box, you can't see the whole equation. All you see is something like "#myVariabel1 * ", and that's it. You're stuck scrolling back and forth with the cursor keys to try and read the whole thing. You see even less in the dimension entry of a sketch. It would be nice to be able to expand the on-screen size of entry box so that you can see the entire expression.

SledDriver

Exactly. The current situation is ridiculous and error prone.

SledDriver

ilya_baran said:

@konstantin_shiriazdanov I don't think we'll go down the path of every expression field becoming a tiny feature studio.  If the object you're creating doesn't fit in the expression box, a custom feature is the way to go I think.

Just cannot agree with that at all. Have you ever tried to edit an expression in a dimension for example?? It's so bad.

And suggesting that Onshape's power should be limited to those with developer knowledge is really unhelpful.

I have programmed 3D CAD systems in assembler in my professional career, but I have no desire to write a custom feature every time I need an expression in a variable or dimension.

ilya_baran

@robert_morris @SledDriver
Ok, I misunderstood the request.  What I meant to say is that we're unlikely to have the full power of the IDE in the expression box for writing complicated multi-line functions (where programming knowledge is already required).  However, I agree that the current box approach doesn't scale well even for moderate-sized expressions and some form of autocomplete is also needed.  We do plan to address this in the future.

owen_sparks

robert_morris said:

...the fact that if you put something simple like "#myVariable1 * (#myVariable2 + #myVariable3)" in the expression box, you can't see the whole equation. All you see is something like "#myVariabel1 * ", and that's it. You're stuck scrolling back and forth with the cursor keys to try and read the whole thing. You see even less in the dimension entry of a sketch. It would be nice to be able to expand the on-screen size of entry box so that you can see the entire expression.

Hell yes please, this drives me slightly nuts on occasion.  Is there an existing IR for it?

Cheers, Owen S

SledDriver

ilya_baran said:

However, I agree that the current box approach doesn't scale well even for moderate-sized expressions and some form of autocomplete is also needed.  We do plan to address this in the future.

Cool, thanks.

dany_maruani

It will help a lot if we can visualise the expression : perhaps a right click on the value will display the formula.

john_mcclary

@dany_maruani

You get a preview of that if you mouse-over the variable in the tree also if that helps for the time being

brucebartlett

Great list of improvements. It's alway exciting to see what's on the list. Keep up the great work team.

Hole feature supporting sheet metal was an important improvement, now I can add a tap hole and my dxf will come out with the hole to the tapping drill size.  I am not sure I like the countersink coming out at the outside diameter, I will quite often put countersinks in a sheet metal part after the hole has been cut or punched, this format doesn't suit this workflow. Also, the taping annotation doesn't seem to be coming into a drawing for a sheet metal part. 

3dcad

I don't understand why we need word variable in front of each variable, icon says it all. And if you need it, you can include it in var name.

For editing, I would still prefer external editor (simplified spreadsheet) where I can set multiple variables in one go (rebuild) and even more important I wan't to use any given dimension as variable without the need to create new var for each.