Update: Super Derive with mate connectors

NeilCooke · November 2022

I just pushed an update to the excellent Super Derive feature by @ilya_baran with 2 new options:

Use origin - on by default, will use the origin of the Part Studio as before. Turned off, will use the first mate connector of the first derived part.
Include mate connectors - off by default, will not derive the part's mate connectors as before. Turned on, will derive mate connectors AND add the mate connectors to the resultant part if add/remove/intersect are used. This means that merged parts will inherit the derived mate connectors which will then appear in further derives or assembly instances. Use origin and Include mate connectors are NOT mutually exclusive.

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/cfef86ed4f9635531599a973

EvanReese · November 2022

Cool options. Already love that feature!

S1mon · November 2022

Why not make it so that mate connectors in the derived part other than the first one could be selected? I could see that being really helpful.

NeilCooke · November 2022

@S1mon couldn’t think of a good UI for it. Considered the mate connector quadrant icon but that only has 4 options (better than nothing). Didn’t want to have an integer input. Any ideas? Glad to add it but only if it makes sense.

S1mon · November 2022

@NeilCooke

I guess I was imagining something like the profile reference dots in the frame feature, but that only works if the MCs are locationally distinct enough.

Can you easily pull up the names of the MCs? It's not too crazy to expect that if, as a user, I want to pick a particular MC, I would be willing to name them in such a manner that I can pick the one I want.

NeilCooke · November 2022

No can do - one of the frustrating limitations of custom features is that nothing exists until the feature regenerates so there is no way to get the MCs to allow selection of a name. The point manipulator could work - I'll have to try it.

EvanReese · November 2022

Kind of a kludge, but you could make another feature that goes in the source part studio at the end of the feature list, which creates a hidden variable containing a map with the MC names and coordinate systems (using a non-allowed character in the variable name like "@" hides it, but it still exists). From there you'd be able to make point manipulators in Super Derive. That might be taking it in too unintuitive of a direction though.

Taylor_Nicholson · July 2023

It seems that when inserting a part with a mate connectors, the mate connectors don't list independently in the feature tree. And don't hide/show when pressing 'k'. This is especially confusing when using super derive on a part with multiple mate connector. Is is possible to list the mate connectors in the tree?

EvanReese · July 2023

@Taylor_Nicholson
This is the current standard behavior. You can click the eyeball next to the feature to hide or show them all, but that's it. I've requested the ability to expand and collapse features like a folder if they are creating several things at once like this. You can vote for it here.

joshtargo · December 2024

@NeilCooke is there a way for regular people to modify to work like Greg's Publish Geometry feature? The goal would be able to derive mate connectors without deriving the whole studio.

craig_ringer · September 21

It's hard to understand why 2 years later Onshape still doesn't allow a derived part to keep the parent's mate connectors natively.

EvanReese · September 22

but… it does though.

ry_gb · December 13

I just used Super Derive today and chose to include the Mate Connectors. In an Assembly, I couldn't hide the imported Mate Connectors stemming from the Super Derive. Anyone else experience this?

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · December 13

@ry_gb I had that problem with a previous version of Poly-Mates. Trouble is, I have no recollection of how I modified the code to solve it. I do remember it being a really esoteric fix that didn't make any sense.

ry_gb · December 16

I don't see an option for "Open linked document" with Super Derive as I see with Derive. Is that because Super Derive is a Featurescript and doesn't allow for that functionality?

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · December 16

Need this for Amalgamate. Digging into it.

Edit: wait, Amalgamate already has this. Maybe it's just a featurescript version number thing with PartStudioData where older versions didn't support it?

Edit edit: It's not even a featurescript version thing, I think it's a document version thing. I just copied the exact code from Super Derive and got it working in a fresh studio. To get this to work I think all that needs to happen is for @NeilCooke to update the Super Derive document to the latest version of Onshape and push a version and you'll get the ability to open links back to the reference.

ry_gb · December 16

Huh. Interesting. The only reason I'm using it is that I'm passing variables between documents. Otherwise, I would've just used vanilla Derive. Any thoughts? Otherwise, I was thinking of calling upon @NeilCooke or @ilya_baran, but that seems excessive.

S1mon · December 16

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/124512#Comment_124512

Any reason not to just insert Variable studios?

https://cad.onshape.com/help/Content/variable_studio.htm#Reference

ry_gb · December 16

Unfortuantely, the variables are measured dimensions from imported parts.

NeilCooke · 12:45AM

@ry_gb I have versioned the document. I tried to change the FS version number to the latest and it threw an error, so if it works for you I will leave it as-is, but if it doesn't i will look into it further,

ry_gb · 1:26AM

It worked on Mobile, so I'm gonna call it good. I'll check tomorrow on Web, but I think it should be alright. Thanks for the quick reply!

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · 1:29AM

I wonder if I should ping @Alex_Kempen to do the same for Point Derive, but I don't know if he still hangs out around the forums

Alex_Kempen · 1:35AM

I have been summoned! I'm surprised people are still using Point Derive in 2025, as I thought the updates to the native Derived feature had made it obsolete. I can update the feature, but I'm curious what the use case is for Point Derive over the Derived feature?

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · 1:59AM

@Alex_Kempen Baked in booleans. Actually I'm further pushing the boundaries of point derive geometry with my Amalgamate custom feature where you can pre-define multiple Boolean operations on the same parts for both positive and negative ops on the same locations. But a large part of our company library revolves around Point Derive in the meantime and I have always wanted easier click through to the seed studios.

ry_gb · 2:31AM

@NeilCooke now that's weird. It totally works on Mobile, but I'm still having issues on Desktop. Here's the mobile screenshot. Open linked document opens the derived document.

Alex_Kempen · 3:03AM

@Derek_Van_Allen_BD hmm, very interesting. I've pushed an update with the latest std version, so let me know if that works for you. I'm glad your company finds my features useful!

NeilCooke · 10:00AM

You can do it from the edit dialog…

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · 1:06PM

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/124563#Comment_124563

If you can get to an edit dialog. Our company has a ton of light users accessing documents that can't click back through the document chain to find the source of a hole pattern that's ruining their morning on the fabrication floor.

ry_gb · 1:49PM

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/124563#Comment_124563

Didn't know that existed, but that solves my problem. Derek brings up a good point, though.

Derek_Van_Allen_BD · 2:28PM

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/124576#Comment_124576

I mean in practice their problems just become my problem and I gotta walk the floor with the laptop to play part detective, but either way I wanted to point it out.

Update: Super Derive with mate connectors

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