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Improvements to Onshape - June 6th, 2025

cody_armstrongcody_armstrong Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 221
edited June 6 in New in Onshape
It's been three weeks and we are back again with an exciting new update. It includes two of our most popular requests and a number of quality of life improvements. Let's dig in.

CAD IMPROVEMENTS

WIDTH MATE

You will find a new Width mate in Onshape assemblies. This new mate makes centering parts in the assembly easier than ever. 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/g5jmm17ty2

SHEET METAL CONE

The Thicken option in the Sheet metal model feature now supports conical faces. This gives you the ability to create conical geometry that unfolds.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/vubtqis0u6

HORIZONTAL SCROLLBAR ON BILL OF MATERIALS

The BOM horizontal scrollbar is available without scrolling to the bottom.



HORIZONTAL RESIZE OF INSERT DIALOG

The Insert dialog, used in many places to add entities (for example, to add instances in Assemblies), can now be resized horizontally.



DRAWING IMPROVEMENTS

TANGENT ARC

Earlier this year we announced the ability to create parametric sketches in drawings. With this update, we are adding the ability to sketch a tangent arc in a drawing.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/u9rxd3iin6


CALLOUT JUSTIFICATION

You can now control text justification of callout items on a drawing. You will find a new Text justification option under Callouts in Drawing properties.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/grdxbvx6gy 


EDUCATION ENTERPRISE

PCB STUDIO AND CAM STUDIO AVAILABILITY

Onshape Education Enterprise users now have access to PCB Studio and CAM Studio. For more information, see the Education Community category in the forums



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.
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Comments

  • Derek_Van_Allen_BDDerek_Van_Allen_BD Member Posts: 65 PRO

    First party sheet metal cones. My dream.

  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,327 PRO

    Well this is indeed a bunch of great features and quality of life improvements!

    I hope that Width mate will handle drafted features. That's one of the biggest frustrations with the between entities mate connector.

  • Rhett_RobinsonRhett_Robinson Member Posts: 152 PRO

    Horizontal resize!!!!!😆

  • gkuhnsgkuhns Member, csevp Posts: 38 PRO

    Width mate! Thank you! I'll use it immediately.

  • EvanReeseEvanReese Member, Mentor Posts: 2,398 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Width mate is yet another thing I didn't know I needed, but the Onshape team did and gave it to me anyway!

    Evan Reese
    The Onsherpa | Reach peak Onshape productivity
    www.theonsherpa.com
  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,327 PRO
    edited June 6

    So, on further investigation of the width mate, it solves one issue with the between entities mate connector - it will accurately find the mid-plane of two non-parallel mate connectors. What it doesn't do is constrain the parts fully. That wasn't 100% obvious in the demo video. It's just a planar mate.

    What I thought it would do would be to (internally) construct two finite length axes with midpoints, and then make both axes coincident and the two midpoints coincident.

    The parts in this screen shot below have a width mate, but there's no way that I can figure out to add another mate that will put that roller where I want, without adding reference geometry to the parts.

    If the two flanges are parallel, I can add a cylindrical mate on one end and the parts are controlled nicely, but the minute the flanges are angled (e.g. for ease of assembly or manufacture) then the cylindrical mate fails. I guess what I'm looking for is a combo of ball/cylindrical mate where one mate connector would describe a point and the other an axis, and the axis would always go through the point.

    image.png
  • Derek_Van_Allen_BDDerek_Van_Allen_BD Member Posts: 65 PRO

    I see that assembly mirror function hanging out there too. Flipping across the top plane was my last instinct after the right plane and top plane. Is that more stable for orientability of mates?

  • rick_randallrick_randall Member Posts: 396 ✭✭✭
    edited June 6

    Horizontal scrollbar on BOM - I have been waiting years for this !!! Do configuration tables work the same way? If not, they should.

    Good job Onshape team - much appreciated.

  • reftfgyhiugjfhytgdrfreftfgyhiugjfhytgdrf Member Posts: 4 EDU

    May I please have an extrude mode (in line with New Add Subtract Intersect) That removes the selected face then extrudes the selected face the same depth as a new extrude. This is something I find myself doing a lot and it would save a ton of time. Thanks.

  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 2,186 PRO

    It sort of sounds like you are describing the "thicken" feature?

  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 2,186 PRO

    Need to play around with the width mate, although at first glance I was surprised it doesn't seem to have "limits" so it seems like it will another mate to lock things in place, which seems less than ideal…

  • Chris_D_Mentes_001Chris_D_Mentes_001 Member, csevp Posts: 116 PRO

    Cone Sheet Metal BABY! This is Huge. Seems so small but the math can be intense

  • sebastian_glanznersebastian_glanzner Member, Developers Posts: 450 PRO

    Sheet Metal Cone is great! Thank you!

  • mlaflecheCADmlaflecheCAD Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 184

    @S1mon as it turns out that you CAN solve for this condition if the cylindrical mate is appplied to the center mate connector the hole on the angled part and not the face mate connectors.

    Regards,
    Mike LaFleche   @mlaflecheCAD
  • mlaflecheCADmlaflecheCAD Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 184
    edited June 7

    https://www.veed.io/view/c36407cd-d64c-4230-9043-1416e0f4404c?panel=share for a quick video on width mate on a non-perpendicular situation as you mention @S1mon and sample public document: https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f333c7dbc8816de5feab30cb/w/b1d1b29ddc4fb864ef48a474/e/d33cbebc8fab347ed742c337 Let us know if that works ;-)

    Width Mate Angled Faces-VEED.gif
    Regards,
    Mike LaFleche   @mlaflecheCAD
  • Chris_KellyChris_Kelly Member Posts: 5 EDU

    I saw it above, but yeah the same problem that the BOM scrollbar had previously still exists for the configuration lists. I encounter a lot of long configuration lists when working on a part library and I hope the fix gets implemented there soon as well.

  • dirk_van_der_vaartdirk_van_der_vaart Member Posts: 554 ✭✭✭

    Sorry @mlaflecheCAD in production we never have that kind of holes in a bended part, I know this is off topic but please use a better example.

  • antero_nickantero_nick Member, csevp Posts: 18 PRO

    Have wanted sheet metal conical features for years.. thank you!

  • aeromorrisonaeromorrison Member Posts: 59 PRO

    Horizontal scroll bars, sheet metal cone, and width mate will get used right away.

  • mlaflecheCADmlaflecheCAD Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 184

    Excellent point @dirk_van_der_vaart ! here is how I would do that as if it were a true sheet metal part, with the hole stamped normal to the face https://www.veed.io/view/4e500722-a69d-4649-8421-241086045978?panel=share : This uses mate connector belonging to the bracket as an axis to mate the pin to, then the width mate is applied. There are other ways of adding width mates too which I will write some info up on for a coming tech tip.

    Michael LaFleche's Video - Jun 7, 2025-VEED.gif

    I created a branch in the document I shared earlier. I added configurable angle to test a range of possibilities as well…https://cad.onshape.com/documents/f333c7dbc8816de5feab30cb/w/6bb72f8bd203adb0d2e6e368/e/d33cbebc8fab347ed742c337?configuration=Wall_Angle%3D0.3490658503988659%2Bradian&renderMode=0&uiState=6844b0d3977cfd4711e52ea4

    Regards,
    Mike LaFleche   @mlaflecheCAD
  • robert_johnstonrobert_johnston Member Posts: 49 PRO

    Might just be me, but a little deflated about this update.

    Nice to get sheet metal for cone but quite limited to concentric reducers, need sheet metal loft for offset reducers and square to round etc

    Support ticket open for 3 years and 2 years since the sneak peek

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