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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: 67 PRO

    First party sheet metal cones. My dream.

  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 3,329 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: 154 PRO

    Horizontal resize!!!!!😆

  • gkuhnsgkuhns Member, csevp Posts: 38 PRO

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

  • EvanReeseEvanReese Member, Mentor Posts: 2,399 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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
  • Derek_Van_Allen_BDDerek_Van_Allen_BD Member Posts: 67 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: 2,188 PRO

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

  • eric_pestyeric_pesty Member Posts: 2,188 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

  • aris_setyawanaris_setyawan Member Posts: 10 EDU
    edited 2:28AM

    great improvement, thanks to Onshape Team

    but this cannot work on eccentric designs, I hope in the future it can be more powerful for eccentric designs in the field of sheet metal,

    next loft bend 😁

  • shawn_crockershawn_crocker Member, OS Professional Posts: 893 PRO

    Width mate, much needed! Sheet metal cone, also much needed! Really nice update.

  • Tahmid_KhandkerTahmid_Khandker Member Posts: 2

    Horizontal Scrollbar on BOM, Lets goo!!

  • bryan_lagrangebryan_lagrange Member, User Group Leader Posts: 869 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sheet metal cone to flat pattern big ++

    Bryan Lagrange
    Twitter: @BryanLAGdesign

  • bryan_lagrangebryan_lagrange Member, User Group Leader Posts: 869 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am guessing sheet metal cone to flat is the first step to sheet metal loft command.

    Bryan Lagrange
    Twitter: @BryanLAGdesign

  • Derek_Van_Allen_BDDerek_Van_Allen_BD Member Posts: 67 PRO

    I'm not one of the devs at Onshape but I've bullied their sheet metal kernel enough to make some educated guesses how things work under the hood. The main barrier to lofted sheet metal is guaranteeing that the seed surfaces defining the sheet metal bodies are developable and zero gaussian curvature underneath. Cylinders are a developable surface because their curvature is inherently parallel to their axis of revolution. Cones are an inherently developable surface because they consist of straight line geometry pointing towards their central axis, but these UV curves are no longer parallel in their unfolded state. Lofted faces don't necessarily carry zero gaussian curvature depending on the inputs used so they need to be evaluated at runtime to check the curvature across the entire surface to determine developability. Or you allow non-zero gaussian curvature but evaluate everything piecewise as the surface flatten tool does, but now your script is computationally insane depending on how granular your simulation is.

    The funny thing is lofted sheet metal technically already is supported if your underlying surfaces have no draft or twist to them. The only first party way to make the geometry is using the extrude option for sheet metal but I've got a script that does a surface extrusion and a replace face on any input body to force label the valid spliney faces as extrusion geometry so the sheet metal convert tool will unfold the parts and give you a flat pattern.

    image.png

    Geometrically there's no difference between the seed part's faces before the custom face fixer script runs and after, it's just that extrusions have a geometric neutral axis that can be read and trusted implicitly by the sheet metal kernel, where lofted faces need that extra interrogation step.

    The fun thing is the 3d side of the sheet metal engine already just works for the real complicated twisty cases if you can set things up so the feature runs in a single convert step (and disable all geometry checks in your own custom fork of the sheet metal tool), it just fails to do the unfolding stage at the moment.

    image.png
  • Derek_Van_Allen_BDDerek_Van_Allen_BD Member Posts: 67 PRO

    As for the demo shown in that tech tip, the piecewise segmented loft approach has its own limitations for faceting. I've attempted to modify another version of someone's custom faceted loft script but that approach can fail in cases where the segments of curves on one side of the loft can't be aligned with like segments on the opposite side and require triangulation instead of a flat parallel extrusion face. This especially happens in offset lofting cases. I never got around to researching fully how to handle those cases, but I imagine the devs encountered a similar hangup and that's why we still have yet to see that tool hit the core feature set.

  • Kaushal_SharmaKaushal_Sharma Member Posts: 2 PRO
    edited 6:20PM

    HORIZONTAL SCROLLBAR IS GOOD, REALLY GOOD, SOME SAY IT IS THE BEST FEATURE EVER INTRODUCED BY ANY SOFTWARE

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