Improvements to Onshape - July 19th, 2024

cody_armstrong · July 10

We are officially in the second half of the year, and it's only going to get more exciting from here! This update is big, and includes some highly-requested features, improvements to recently-released features, and improvements we know many will appreciate. We hope you enjoy them.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

DARK MODE (BETA)

Onshape now supports Dark mode in the Documents page, Feature studios, Variable studios, Part Studios, and assemblies.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/utoew6x55c

PART STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS

CLEAR MISSING REFERENCES

In our last update, we added a new View in repair feature that makes repairing broken references much easier. Based on your feedback with this new feature, we have added a new option to easily clear all missing references. This eliminates the need to select them one at a time.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/yvvb5bzyqe

CREATE SELECTION FOR FILL

A "Create selection" option has been added to the Fill feature. This makes it much easier to select a connected series of edges when defining a Fill.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/zwjj03xg81

FILTER PARTS LIST

You can now search and filter the Parts list. This is especially useful when you need a quick way to filter and select parts by name for operations like assigning materials, hiding/showing, and more.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/w1apgr5xo3

SKETCH IMPROVEMENTS

SKETCH EXPRESSIONS ON MOUSE HOVER

You can now hover over sketch dimensions and view the sketch expression associated with them.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/00/rl4hbg204499.gif

SKETCH CONSTRAINT IMPROVEMENTS

When selecting sketch geometry, Onshape now prioritizes the selection of the entity that is not fully constrained when it overlaps with a fully constrained entity. This is especially important when deleting a sketch constraint and manually dragging an endpoint.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/81valqqcg8

DRAWING IMPROVEMENTS

FORESHORTENED DIMENSION IMPROVEMENTS

You can now apply foreshortened dimensions to non-cylindrical features.

SURFACE FINISH IMPROVEMENTS

Surface finish symbols can now be placed directly on faces. When placed, the appropriate dot arrowhead is shown.

RENDER STUDIO IMPROVEMENTS

REMOVE UNUSED APPEARANCES

You can now remove any unused appearances in Render Studio. As you experiment with different appearances, this new feature makes it easy to keep your appearance list clean.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/yhxy5g71a1

FEATURESCRIPT IMPROVEMENTS

SAFE NAVIGATION OPERATORS IN FEATURESCRIPT

We have added safe navigation operators to FeatureScript: a?.b and a?[b] now behave like a.b and a[b], respectively, except that if a is undefined, they evaluate to undefined instead of throwing an error. This is often referred to as optional chaining or Elvis operators in other languages.

LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

RENDER STUDIO COURSE IMPROVEMENTS

All of the latest Render Studio improvements have been included in our new Introduction to Render Studio course.

NEW VIDEOS

We have added new videos explaining how to use Repair to fix broken references and Workspace Protection to better control changes on specific branches in the Version and history panel.

Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and leave your comments below. For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the changelog.

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

S1mon · July 19

Everything here is great. I was never too excited about dark mode, but I know it’s been a constant request. The rest of these are all things I’ve wanted for a while.

shawn_crocker · July 19

A lot of nice ones here. Clear out missing refs from list and filter parts list are my favs this round.

billyzelsnack · July 19

So nice. What am I going to do with all the time I get back with SKETCH CONSTRAINT IMPROVEMENTS?

Cedric_Eveleigh · July 19

Thanks for the improvement to selecting unconstrained sketch features. These kinds of user experience improvements aren't as sexy as others but they matter.

Matthew_Wilson · July 19

What a quality of life release! Dark mode and all these other improvements all in one? You're spoiling us now.

sebastian_glanzner · July 19

Dark mode works great!
I also noticed some nice colors in FeatureScript, when dark mode is active

tbhausen · July 19

Thank you for Dark Mode.

MichaelPascoe · July 19

preferences set

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/c8/6rucbfir342y.gif

Works in Feature Studio too?! Very nice team.

And quality of life improvements to top it off. A++

BOA_Technology · July 19

Wow, we were just talking about how sketch manipulation could be improved. You read our mind with the sketch constraint improvement. This will make adjusting and testing complex sketches so much easier. And just about every user over here will be switching to dark mode. Keep getting after it!

sebastian_glanzner · July 19

@bryan_lagrange
I wonder what Sheet Metal Loft would look like in Dark Mode

The changelog has so many small fixes and improvements. And each bug which is fixed, is fixed for every user on the planet.
I really like that about Onshape!

rafael_telgmann · July 19

Wow... Dark mode, clear missing references, mouse over expressions, and hiding/showing sketches with keyboard shortcuts while hovering over appearance panel (don't miss that=> changelog). Really great update! Thx

bryan_lagrange · July 19

@sebastian_glanzner in my dreams Sheet Meal Loft is a new wonder of the world in Dark Mode.

ian_gardiner_ats · July 19

Great updates Onshape! Pushing out improvements during global internet outage.
status.onshape.com ... Onshape is 100% operational.

adam_geary · July 19

DARK MODE! Thank you! I've been asking for that for years. Now that my eyes are starting to have real problems, I appreciate it more than ever.

Normally I'd be most excited for clearing missing references, which has been real irksome over the years, but dark mode steals the show. And that sketch QOL improvement is also amazing.

billyzelsnack · July 19

Dark mode had a surprise accessibility bonus improvement for me!!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/05/6jgg73e38a2h.png

With my particular color blindness it was difficult to differentiate between features with error and non-error colors and especially when they were hidden. Often I would only find out about the errors when they were put in a folder, which uses a different color scheme that I could see.

Now the errors are super obvious!!

Andre_Comella · July 19

Amazing update!

My biggest criticism of Onshape has always been that too many operations require too many clicks. This update was a big step to remedying that

STEG · July 19

C'est dans les détails que j'aime Onshape et vous me surprenez à chaque mise à jour! 👌

BONUS: Je ne savais pas que j'aimerais autant le mode sombre mais étant daltonien, je peux maintenant voir facilement ce qui est en rouge sans demander à ma fille de venir m'aider! 👏

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/n4/y4o3ijgdju6n.png

chris_mattson · July 19

Onshape team, you guys are awesome.

bill_schnoebelen · July 19

darkmode?true

S1mon · July 19

sebastian_glanzner said:

The changelog has so many small fixes and improvements.

Yes! Thanks for the reminder. One that stood out to me that wasn't covered in the post:

"Support setting ‘Perspective’ and ‘Highlight boundary edges’ as defaults"

------

Also. Dark mode is making me much happier than I thought it might. Nice job!

It's curious that the constraints in the sketcher are still small pixelated GIFs with black on white or black on blue, unlike their treatment in the toolbar.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/xa/n5gf56e35eb9.png

I really like the contrast between the constrained (now white) and the blue in the sketcher. This is much easier to see.

porter_keele · July 20

I'm really glad that there's integrated dark mode now, my only notable complaint is that i wish the grey fill in for closed faces was a little darker so the sketch lines contrast better

brucebartlett · July 20

Awesome updates thanks.

robert_johnston · July 20

@sebastian_glanzner @bryan_lagrange so eager for sheet metal loft!!! must be a huge sheet metal feaure update in the pipeline or all resources are concentrating on CNC milling/turning features.

Awesome update tho with Darkmode!!

rob_relva · July 20

Any chance we get dark mode into the drawings tab drawings also?

Sooo happy for it though, took me by surprise. much more restful on my eyes @ 6am

All I need now is that sheet_metal_loft feature I keep hearing about so I can finally make truncated cones

GregBrown · July 20

S1mon said:

sebastian_glanzner said:

The changelog has so many small fixes and improvements.
Yes! Thanks for the reminder. One that stood out to me that wasn't covered in the post:

"Support setting ‘Perspective’ and ‘Highlight boundary edges’ as defaults"

------

Agreed this was a key thing to add - one that I’ve been advocating! It is a real quality of life improvement.

antero_nick · July 20

Thanks for Dark Mode!

billy2 · July 20

Thanks for clear missing references.

MichaelPascoe · July 21

These render studio improvements are fantastic. I can tell you guys have put a lot of love into it.

One suggestion, when box selecting, I never want to select faces, and render studio takes FOREVER if you accidentally apply materials to faces instead of parts. This makes box selections basically unusable. It would be great if faces were not selected when you window select a group of parts. Perhaps this could be default behavior.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5022071/uploads/editor/ew/jduy0n76merl.png

S1mon · July 21

I already have an improvement request to control what is selectable in Render Studio. I almost never want to apply an Appearance to a face, and yet it is the easiest thing to do.

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/24563/add-filtering-tools-to-instance-list-in-render-studio#latest

mark_morgen · July 21

Hello, Darkness! Already looking forward to "Adjustable Gray between Black and White" Mode

Thank you!