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Improvements to Onshape - October 11th, 2016

cody_armstrongcody_armstrong Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 213
edited October 2016 in New in Onshape
It's that time again! Check out all the awesome new features that were added with this most recent update!

SHORTCUT TOOLBARS

The "S" key on the keyboard now launches a shortcut toolbar in Part Studios and assemblies.  It's a context sensitive toolbar that appears right next to your cursor.  It can be customized under your "Manage Account" settings under "Preferences."  The keyboard shortcut for starting a sketch is now "Shift + S".

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/3py9um2qeo?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


MOVE TO DOCUMENT

You can now move tabs to a new Document.  Right click a tab and choose "Move to Document."  You can even move multiple tabs to a new Document at once with the tab manager.  If the tab has references, they will also be moved to the new Document.  The Document where the tab originated from will automatically update to reflect the link to the new Document.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/t2b93njemm?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


THUMBNAIL PREVIEW

You will now see a thumbnail preview for tabs when hovering over them.  Simply hover over a tab at the bottom, pause for a moment, and the thumbnail will appear.  

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/h2yrbldyo0?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


SHARE PERMISSIONS IMPROVEMENTS

New share permission options give you more control over the exact permissions you want to give to others.  In the past, you had a pre-defined list of permissions to choose from. With this update each separate permission has a checkbox allowing you to pick and choose the permissions you want.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/3mex2caf0r?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


SHEET SCALE

Sheet Scale can now be set in Onshape Drawings.  Select sheet properties and you will see a new option to "Scale."  Changing sheet scale will update every view linked to the sheet scale.  If a view is changed to something other than the sheet scale, a note with the scale will appear automatically.  Sheet scale will display in the default Onshape drawing templates, and is also a field that can be inserted into a note.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/229bap3w35?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


FRACTIONAL INCHES

Fractional inches are now a supported length unit in Onshape Drawings.  This allows you to display dimensions as fractions and also set the tolerance so the dimension is appropriately rounded.

http://onshape.wistia.com/medias/sjclthpeol?embedType=async&videoWidth=640


EXPLODE TEXT WHEN EXPORTING DRAWINGS

When exporting an Onshape Drawing as DXF, DWG, or DWT, there is a new option for managing text when exporting.  "Explode into polylines" will allow you to export a drawing with text as polylines.  This can resolve some issues users have when importing drawings from Onshape into another application.


NEW DRAWING SYMBOLS

New square , "+/-", and arc length symbols have been added to the list of symbols in Onshape Drawings.



SHOW/HIDE BORDER OF IMAGES IN DRAWINGS

When inserting images into drawings, there is a new right-click menu option to hide or show the image borders.



Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and let us know what you think!

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new documents and over the next few days these features will also be available in documents created before the date of this update.

Comments

  • RKRK OS Professional Posts: 16 PRO
    Thank you very much for Shortcut Toolbar.
  • doug_westdoug_west Member Posts: 2
    @coleman not in this release but that is coming soon
  • shashank_aaryashashank_aarya Member Posts: 265 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2016
    Thanks very much for move to new document and thumbnail preview! :smile:
  • viruviru Member, Developers Posts: 619 ✭✭✭✭
     Great List of improvements.  I'm especially excited about improvements move to new document and thumbnail preview. Thank you Onshape team for introducing this



    I'm really enjoying Onshape at the moment!
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Nice job folks, like it a lot.
    Cheers,
    Owen S
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    Amazing work!

    It's almost unreal feeling when you see a new feature added into professional cad tool which we requested on forum only few months ago. 
    //rami
  • GWS50GWS50 Member Posts: 366 PRO
    Great Update. I'm always cautious when using a new system but I find Onshape is taking over as my main CAD tool, it is so intuitive and the workflow actually flows. Can we have better 'presentation' in drawings please. i.e. colour renders
  • colemancoleman OS Professional Posts: 244 ✭✭✭
    @doug_west-  got it...Thanks!
  • 3dexter3dexter Member Posts: 89 ✭✭✭
    Thank you very much for Shortcut Toolbar.
  • chris_8chris_8 OS Professional Posts: 102 PRO
    I didn't know I wanted Thumbnail Preview until I saw one pop up yesterday.     Now I'm hooked
  • jackson_kingjackson_king OS Professional Posts: 80 PRO
    edited October 2016
    Really like the updates!!  Will the shortcut bar be making it's way to drawings some time soon?

    Oh, and maybe a way to adjust the shape of the pop-up from square to rectangular (drag to resize?).  That way I could have my sketch buttons on the top row and the constraint buttons on the lower row.
  • 3dexter3dexter Member Posts: 89 ✭✭✭
    Really like the updates!!  Will the shortcut bar be making it's way to drawings some time soon?
    Great observation!
  • fastwayjimfastwayjim Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 220 PRO
    It's like you read my mind! Literally two days ago, I was thinking how nice it would be to remove the outline of an image on a drawing...
  • BjornHeideBjornHeide Member Posts: 10 ✭✭✭
    GWS50 said:
    Great Update. I'm always cautious when using a new system but I find Onshape is taking over as my main CAD tool, it is so intuitive and the workflow actually flows. Can we have better 'presentation' in drawings please. i.e. colour renders
    Yes, please....
  • PeteYodisPeteYodis Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 518
    @jackson_king @3dexter Yes, the shortcut bar will come to drawings.  
  • Fran_NuñezFran_Nuñez Member Posts: 3
    i would prefer to keep the s for sketches and shift+s for shortcuts. Nice update, keep it up guys!
  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    "Move to document" is an improvement that I've been waiting for since Onshape went public beta. Now I'm finally able to move parts into there own document and version them independently of each other. Unfortunately this improvement doesn't allow me to move a single part out of a part studio into another document therefore I still cannot use Onshape as it was designed to create multiple parts in a part studio. 

    It's my hope that this improvement will be expanded to include moving a single part out of a part studio and into another document in the near future.

    Keep up the good work.

    _Ðave_
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,310
    Hi @_Dave_,

    I'm not sure how this would work? The whole premise of Part Studios is that you can create inter-related parts, like a subassembly, and use edges off other parts so that references are more robust. Onshape basically treats a Part Studio as a single part (though in reality it is multiple parts built up from individual features). If I really need to separate parts I tend to duplicate the Part Studio, delete the features that define the parts I don't need and fix any broken references - I could then move the tab to another Document. To make this work we would probably have to disable the movement of parts that reference other parts which would cause a lot of confusion. Always open to ideas?
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Nice Set of Improvements. I really like the s key, move to document and the sheet scale in drawings improvement. Actually they are all good.
      
    @_Dave_ I am wondering why you would want your parts moved into a single part studio tabs? Can your requirement be performed with a derived part or by adding a single part to an assembly while retaining links or as dumb solids by exporting to a neutral format then re-importing to a separate part studio's.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2016
     Surely any company with a product, has a need to version parts independently of each other and the assembly. I appreciate the complexity of the problem but none the less this should be resolved. In solidworks we can link a part file to an assembly and version it and the assembly will update. Now onshape gives us that ability with "move to document" improvement or I can derive or link the part into the assembly from another document as @brucebartlett suggest.
    But either way I can't take advantage of creating my parts in a multi part studio, which is a great feature in Onshape.
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @_dave_ I'm not sure if it helps in your workflow but If you need it each part can have its own revision.

    Right click on the part in the parts list and select properties and you'll see this:-



    I have an open improvement request to have this parameter (and others) included in the file name of any part that is exported.

    Regards,
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • amCADamCAD Member Posts: 12 ✭✭
    That S key shortcut saves so much "mouse mileage".
    I use it all the time in SWX and I find it much more comfortable than remapping the whole keyboard with shortcuts on the individual keys.
    I was not expecting that. Huge thanks to the team.
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    Dave, Neil, Bruce & others
    Surely it would be better solution to expand version control so that we can create versions of parts rather than building system to move them into their own documents. I need this function too, I don't like to version whole document since usually I only wan't to version a part or single part studio.

    I have not made any request  for this yet  beacause I wan't to first see variants/configurations if that would provide me a way to make changes to single part, bounce between versions in assembly and get changes documented (ie. keep also old versions accessible).
    //rami
  • _Ðave__Ðave_ Member, Developers Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
    @3dcad I agree that expanding version control may be a better solution.
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