Routing curve & Control point curve - Introduction of two new features for 3D curve creation

Jonathan_Hutchinson · February 21

Thanks Greg for the quick response - I should caveat that I really want this feature to work well, as it is something that if working well can bundle the requirements and strengths of two packages into one.

To my amazement I'm finding there to be a lot of lag from multi-span and even during the creation of the single span. Maybe topping out at about 8 points, I'm using the triad manipulator and having to hold the mouse in position to make sure the point movement has caught up. The document isn't super lightweight (drawing in context over an assembly of ECAD parts, which I've done attempted optimisation of with composite parts etc). I tried on someone else's better hardware but found the speed to be equivalent. In a fresh clean doc the speed is certainly okay.

I can't replicate behaviour right now, but I was finding the 'Add axis on point drag' being rechecked/forgotten a bit randomly. Is it sometimes remembered as a setting per vertex? I was turning it off (I thought) and then when I dragged a different point was bemused to see it was on again.

I'd love to help a bit more with road-testing this feature and similar in future. I'm not quite sure what improvements to suggest yet, but I'll try and have a think while I'm working with it still.

EvanReese · February 21

@GregBrown Can't wait to see the updates!

https://media.giphy.com/media/Fo1cy8mqGDvbjpJBB7/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611brpf0xu6hgaqfo4eui4dx4s2h0sabuadafecge3y&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

zac_bimson · February 27

@GregBrown This is a fantastic tool with a lot of potential! My use case is similar to what @billy2 showed, with no need for spline routing but rather lots of orthogonal, rigid hydraulic plumbing systems.

Some improvement requests for the Routing Curve FS:

The most obvious issue I'm dealing with is speed, it takes 3-5 seconds of processing after every click. My other OS functions are as fast as normal. No other FS I've used is this slow
The subsequent (and even bigger) problem of the slow speed is that if I make a setting change in the UI (e.g. Add point on axis drag), and move the triad during these 5 seconds before it's finished processing, not only is the setting change NOT taken into account, but the settings shows "changed" despite not being activated! I hope it's a simple frontend fix to block input until the FS is ready for it.
I have demonstrated below in a fresh document. "Add point on axis drag" does NOT work unless I wait for the loading icon to disappear

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/q6cd3nquxmuclufi4hbi9/18-17-37.mp4?rlkey=xdbhqeuq1wsxmpsafw10ocudl&st=e33cbcb9&dl=0
A major function that's missing is the ability to move a segment instead of a point. This makes it incredibly difficult to keep everything orthogonal. My use case looks like this:

I have demonstrated in the video below: I want to make the grey pipe (back) look like the blue pipe (front). This can be achieved by moving points but it requires careful attention to which points have "Relative to previous point" activated, which I find difficult to manage. In the video I get it wrong twice before achieving the desired behavior. If I have orthogonal route of 50 points and I want to move 1 horizontal segment (points 2 and 3) by 20mm without propagating to other segments, I need to check the settings of points 3 and 4 to make sure the change will not be propagated inappropriately. If I DID want the 20mm change to propagate to the rest of the route, I would need to check the settings of ALL 48 points downstream of point 2. Perhaps a little arrow graphic showing the direction of the route and a colour scheme to show which segments will move w.r.t. others would help? Even better, settings like "Keep orthogonal", "Move Segment" and "Move Segment: Group Selection" would be godsends

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/at9i592mfthea9k0rrwph/18-28-12.mp4?rlkey=tshsz0vtkx1lmaaudzuvw3nye&st=hhbj6pad&dl=0
Branching routes (using tee connectors) is another major function for me that's missing. To make a manifold requires a Routing Curve for each branch, which is tedious in my use cases with 1 main line and 20 single-segment branches, I would need 21 routing curves. It can be done by adding a redundant point in my main branch, and referencing that as the start point of my "branch" route curve. However, adding such a point in the main route makes colinear segments, which breaks my bend radius parameter, and I need to "override bend radius = 0 mm" for all 20 branch points
Finally, any gravity-fed plumbing system will use a 3° slant on all piping. It would be fantastic to define an orientation and have "slant angle" as a parameter that accounts for the orthogonality constraint. Check out the syntax for Solid Edge's XpresRoute, I think it's great

Thanks for your work! These improvements would really help my team and I'd feel more confident investing in Onshape long term. It would also distinguish OS in the CAD market, since most software providers demand a premium for a true "Piping and Tubing" environment (e.g. SOLIDWORKS, CATIA, SolidEdge, NX)
Tagging @Soufiane_ABOULAAKL who pointed me to this forum 😁

GregBrown · March 14

OK everyone, it's been a little while since I've commented on this thread, but I think by now you will have seen today's (March 13, 2025) release and will understand why…

Thanks to A LOT of the feedback here (sincere thanks to you all!) we went back to work on the feature and have incorporated many suggestions, made many improvements, increased performance, gave it better usability and thus deemed it ready to be included as a native feature in Onshape.

For those following along the major things we addressed:

made the array parameter list only show current selected point (shorter list/menu, faster to get to the right data…)
allow variables and expressions in the dimensions for the points
enhanced the orthogonal path selection
included distance and angle display/input text boxes in the manipulator
a bunch of general manipulator usability and cosmetic improvements (incidentally this fullTriadManipulator is available through FeatureScript to use in your own Custom features!)
Edge inputs are parametric (i.e. the "curve" type enum
enhancements to derivative controls
and more

Our intent has been to provide a general feature suitable for routing wires, flexible hoses, rigid pipes, frames etc whilst not getting too overly application specific. I hope that it can inspire some great Custom features if deep application specificity is required, as well as be a popular foundational tools for use across multiple workflows.

Again, thanks to all on this thread for a) following along so far(!) and b) providing valuable input.

I'll make some movies in the coming days that show off some of the features.

tom_savu433 · March 14

Hello,

I can't see the Routing curve feature in old documents, even if the document is updated.

I can see it only in new documents.

duane_kaufman · March 20

Dear All,

I can't see this feature at all, neither in old or new documents….

What am I doing wrong? - I was able to open up and example part (and even modify it), but cannot create from scratch.

Sincerely,

Duane Kaufman

eric_pesty · March 20

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/115121#Comment_115121

My guess is that it wasn't automatically added to your toolbar for some reason…
Try right-clicking on the toolbar and go to "customize toolbar", see if it shows up in the list.

nick_brown567 · March 24

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/110976#Comment_110976

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

S1mon · March 25

In case you miss this elsewhere, @GregBrown did a in-depth video on Routing curve now that it's been released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8shIxZ4eBXQ

MichaelPascoe · March 25

.

Routing curve feedback:

The point on axis drag, is brilliant!

Something I was instinctively trying to do but I didn't see the option, would be to reference the previous node (x, y or z), while moving up to an entity (x, y, or z). For example, if you want to keep the height reference (z) of the previous node, but use the (xy) position of a sketch point or other reference. A workflow for this may look like: Drag the manipulator with the point on axis drag, then select an entity, and it will go in the drag direction, up to the entity.

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Routing curve & Control point curve - Introduction of two new features for 3D curve creation

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