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Improvements to Onshape - September 8th, 2017

cody_armstrongcody_armstrong Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 213
We have a big update for you this time around!  Many of these improvements have been highly requested so we hope you enjoy them.  Let's jump in.

SHEET METAL TAB

Create tabs in sheet metal parts.  You can create multiple tabs with a single feature and you can define a subtraction scope for subtracting tabs from other sheet metal parts.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/rejpf5lbm5?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


VARIABLE FILLET

A new option in the Fillet command that allows you to create a fillet with a variable radius.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/05eg6290gd?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


SIZED SHEET METAL CORNER AND BEND RELIEFS

You can now specify a size for sheet metal corner and bend reliefs.  In the past this was limited to a scale factor.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/kt0h1p8vzs?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS

You can now customize the toolbars in the Part Studio, Assembly, and Feature Studio environments.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/mmstvajk1a?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


NOTE IMPROVEMENTS

The Note command in Onshape Drawings can now be used to create both a normal Note and a Note with Leader.  In the past, these were two separate commands.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/libbxxebuw?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


PHANTOM TANGENT EDGES 

You can now show tangent edges in drawing views as "Phantom."  Particularly useful when "Solid" display of tangent edges is too much detail.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/68bbytvpa8?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640


DRAWING SECTION VIEW PERFORMANCE

Section Views in Onshape Drawings will now be cached.  This should improve section view performance and lead to a noticeable decrease in load times of drawings with section views.

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

  • emagdalenaC2iemagdalenaC2i Member, Developers, Channel partner Posts: 858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Awesome set of improvements  :)
    Un saludo,

    Eduardo Magdalena                         C2i Change 2 improve                         ☑ ¿Por qué no organizamos una reunión online?  
                                                                         Partner de PTC - Onshape                                     Averigua a quién conocemos en común
  • robert_morrisrobert_morris OS Professional, Developers Posts: 166 PRO
    Glad to see the variable radius fillets. I'll definitely be putting that to use.
    Thanks guys and gals!

  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    Very nice!

    Now that you have begun with customizable toolbar option, let me move toolsets from the top to where ever I wan't. And let me save changes globally or just for current document. =)
    //rami
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Great to see the addition of a sheet metal tab function, this will be really handy. It's really nice that it can go across sheet metal part as well. 

    On the clearance for tab subtraction would it be a possibility to get an option for clearance on both the sheet face and cut edges as quite often this is varied. The Laser Joint feature script does this very nicely as well as those fiddly corner clearances.  see image here.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • lanalana Onshape Employees Posts: 689
    @brucebartlett
    We'll look into that. May be, extending Laser Joint feature to handle sheet metal ribs would be a good approach.
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    lana said:
    @brucebartlett
    We'll look into that. May be, extending Laser Joint feature to handle sheet metal ribs would be a good approach.
    Thanks, @lana I really haven't had a chance yet to test the tab function but can see it will be really useful, it was painful having to extend and cut. 

    The Laser  Joint  is one of my favorite feature scripts, @lemon1324 has done a great job on this and it would be really cool to see it become functional for sheet metal too. 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • bryan_lagrangebryan_lagrange Member, User Group Leader Posts: 792 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Great sheet metal additions. Kudos to the Onshape sheet metal team, @scott_harris , @lana , and everyone involved. Can't wait to try them out.

    Bryan Lagrange
    Twitter: @BryanLAGdesign

  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
  • darren_13darren_13 Member, Developers Posts: 118 ✭✭
    It would be really cool if I could add my custom features to a tool set? My first thought on this was Great! Aerospace toolset! I use the Aerofoil Generator much more than I do delete face and things like that. 

    Another thing I thought was I could demote things I don't use as often to clean the view. If I removed it from the tool bar it would still be available in a drop down somewhere instead of having to customise the toolbar to use it again.

    Finally, some of the features are available via drop down. I would love to be able to change the default, for example, I use 3D spline a lot more than helix, so promoting that to default would be super!

    But I really appreciate this update, just wanted to put some ideas out!
    Best,
    Darren
  • billy2billy2 Member, OS Professional, Mentor, Developers, User Group Leader Posts: 2,014 PRO
    Nice release, keep it coming!


  • lemon1324lemon1324 Member, Developers Posts: 223 EDU
    @brucebartlett Thanks for the love for the Laser Joint feature, I'm glad people other than me are getting good use out of it.

    Currently on vacation, then a couple weeks of finishing out a paper, but I should have time to take a look after that. I'm probably going to see if I can get any performance gains in Laser Joint by using more primitives first before looking at sheet metal.

    I personally don't use a lot of sheet metal either, actually, so if you had an example of geometry you'd want such a script to do I can take a look as I get time. (With you being a pro user, if it's actually critical, keep bugging Onshape for an official solution ;) )
    Arul Suresh
    PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
  • jrs_spedleyjrs_spedley Member Posts: 71 ✭✭
    Excellent Customisable toolbar!  I've wanted to take tools out of the drop down menu for quite some time (e.g. Circular/Linear Pattern) and get rid of the sheet metal work which I don't use.  Is there anyway to put the tools back into drop down menus?
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited September 2017
    darren_13 said:
    It would be really cool if I could add my custom features to a tool set? My first thought on this was Great! Aerospace toolset! I use the Aerofoil Generator much more than I do delete face and things like that. 

    Another thing I thought was I could demote things I don't use as often to clean the view. If I removed it from the tool bar it would still be available in a drop down somewhere instead of having to customise the toolbar to use it again.

    Finally, some of the features are available via drop down. I would love to be able to change the default, for example, I use 3D spline a lot more than helix, so promoting that to default would be super!

    But I really appreciate this update, just wanted to put some ideas out!
    Best,
    Darren
    Agree with all of this.

    Nice work as phase 1 but the first thing I tried to do was to create a toolbar for my most used featurescripts, second was to drag out the composite curve from the drop-down so it's always available. Neither worked. :(

    ***Edit, dragging out features from drop-downs is possible please see Neil's post below.

    @darren_13 please will you raise improvements for your ideas?  If you do so I'll be happy to vote on them!

    Cheers,

    Owen.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • darren_13darren_13 Member, Developers Posts: 118 ✭✭
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    darren_13 said:
    Thanks for that, vote cast. B)

    Cheers,

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • florianflorian Member, OS Professional Posts: 110 ✭✭✭
    Did you change something in sketching? My geometry seems to be constrained on many more features and constraint types than before, when drawing. Earlier I had to wake them with the mouse. Now it snaps to everything…
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    florian said:
    Did you change something in sketching? My geometry seems to be constrained on many more features and constraint types than before, when drawing. Earlier I had to wake them with the mouse. Now it snaps to everything…
    Now you mention it I've seen that too but it's been going on for longer than just the last update.  Less need to project/use first, instead just snap to what you want in one go.  Is that what you're noticing?

    Cheers, Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,305
    second was to drag out the composite curve from the drop-down so it's always available. Neither worked. :( 
    @owen_sparks to split a drop-down, remove the entire drop-down icon set by dragging it into the customize window, then select "show items already in toolbar". You can then drag individual items onto your toolbar.

    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited September 2017
    NeilCooke said:
    @owen_sparks to split a drop-down, remove the entire drop-down icon set by dragging it into the customize window, then select "show items already in toolbar". You can then drag individual items onto your toolbar.

    Now that is groovy, thanks Neil.

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • fastwayjimfastwayjim Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 220 PRO
    Toolbar Customization is awesome!!!
  • emagdalenaC2iemagdalenaC2i Member, Developers, Channel partner Posts: 858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Un saludo,

    Eduardo Magdalena                         C2i Change 2 improve                         ☑ ¿Por qué no organizamos una reunión online?  
                                                                         Partner de PTC - Onshape                                     Averigua a quién conocemos en común
  • maker_secretsmaker_secrets Member Posts: 1
    We have a big update for you this time around!  Many of these improvements have been highly requested so we hope you enjoy them.  Let's jump in.
    That's great !
    Particulary variable fillet for Makersecrets ;) !
  • ChuckKeyChuckKey Member Posts: 43 ✭✭✭
    Variable radius fillet is great, and something I have been looking forward to for a long time, but unfortunately it does not do quite what I hoped for.

    Part 2, on the right, was built to approximate to the desired effect, in which the fillet radius increases as the angle beween the surfaces becomes more obtuse. There may be an easier way, but I arrived at this part by a cumbersome route, using cylindrical surfaces, with larger concentric surfaces to split them, so as to provide a gap in which a fillet could be lofted. (Then filling the end faces for a solid.)

    Part 1, on the left, shows a normal fillet between the union of two cylinders, and shows the, arguably, aesthetically less pleasing diminution of the fillet arc length towards the top plane.

    I think the effect I am seeking would be achived by varying the fillet radius such that the length of the fillet arc remained reasonably constant.

    Unfortunately, I cannot use the new variable fillet feature to achieve my desired result because this fillet has no vertices to vary. What I would like to be able to do is to add my own fillet vertices, for example, wherever the fillet intersects selected planes.
     
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,305
    @ChuckKey - the fillet on the left is of course correct. Do you just want the one on the right for aesthetic purposes? If you are machining that makes it more difficult, but fine if you are just 3d printing.

    Here is the solution - to get extra vertices, split the surrounding faces as per the part on the left. The part on the right was created by sweeping a circle around the edge, splitting and deleting faces, then lofting. This is called a "constant width fillet" - I also want this feature so please create an improvement request in the category on the right ----> Thanks.

    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/5d5a7c3621c9e6393e40c9c5/w/bb25fad0b953628209ecb0ee/e/08b1e3344b4fbc1a53329fdb





    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • RT_AXIOMRT_AXIOM Member Posts: 18 PRO
    I like the tab feature but not sure why it needed to be a new feature.  The tab and subtraction scope is basically just grouping the extrude and boolean subtract features into one.  It would be nice if all features that were available when NOT creating a sheet metal part were made available during sheet metal.  ie. pattern, mirror, extrude from the end of a face.

    Not sure how everyone else feels but I would like to see the "finish sheet metal feature" disappear... 
     

    Also the subtraction scope in the tab feature could use a "through all" command or checkbox.  Not sure if anyone else has this issue but usually I create tabs that don't go all the way through the mating "slotted" part.  I make them shorter so that I can weld the tabs into the slots and grind them flush for a clean finished look.
  • Jake_RosenfeldJake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646
    Hi @ryan_thivierge ,

    The added value of the Tab feature is that it can add arbitrarily-shaped sketched material to the sheet metal part.  This was not currently possible with extrude or any other feature.  Adding material is possible with Move Face, but it is somewhat more restrictive than tab.

    As for your second question, If the subtraction scope of your tab is not a sheet metal part, it will subtract the exact shape of the tab (with defined offset).  The reason this is not the behavior when subtraction scope is a sheet metal part is that currently all cuts must go all the way through the sheet metal part.  Support for sheet metal etching and partial milling is on our radar, but you can help by creating an Improvement request for etching or partial milling.
    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
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