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Improvements to Onshape - August 1st, 2018

cody_armstrongcody_armstrong Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 213
edited August 2018 in New in Onshape
It's the first of August and and we are back again with another list of great improvements. These improvements includes new features as well as major performance and usability improvements. Let's get started.

CAD IMPROVEMENTS

REORDER MULTIPLE FEATURES

You can now reorder multiple features in the feature list at once. Simply left-click each feature that you want to move and drag them to their new position in the tree. In the past, this was limited to moving one feature at a time.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/oh60p94uqy

MATE CONNECTOR AS AXIS

You can now select a mate connector as a reference for an axis. This can be particularly useful in commands like transform where you may want to rotate with respect to a mate connector, or a command like circular pattern in situations where these is no easily selectable circular reference. When selecting a mate connector as an axis, the Z axis of the mate connector is used.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/0i5fvftqf8

SHEET METAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Performance improvements are something we are always working on and rarely highlight. But the performance improvements to sheet metal parts in this update are especially noteworthy. In more complex multi-part sheet metal Part Studios, we are seeing significant rebuild time improvements. Below is a simple 15 feature sheet metal Part Studio that saw over a 25% decrease in rebuild time.



LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

Major improvements have been made to the Onshape Learning Center. The most noticeable improvement is the new, more intuitive interface with better search features. This also includes a new learning pathway dashboard that makes it easier to track your progress. New videos have also been added to Onshape Assemblies and Document Management courses. Finally, two new Learning Center courses are being added; Part Configurations and Advanced Configurations.



HELP IMPROVEMENTS

Improvements have been made to the Help homepage. These improvements include a new tiled interface that makes it easier to navigate.




PROFESSIONAL FEATURES

CHANGE TO REVISION

You can now change existing parts or assemblies to a revision in both the assembly and drawing. This means you can now change to all stages of the workflow, from the active workspace, to a version, and finally to a release.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/d5o31477bt


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 and over the next few days these features will also be available in Documents created before the date of this update.
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Comments

  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Great stuff folks, well done :+1:
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • jackson_kingjackson_king OS Professional Posts: 80 PRO
    If only I had procrastinated 1 more hour, I could have used the "change to revision" update!!!

    Great set of updates Onshape team!
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Awesome to see some more updates! I have been long desiring the group drag, this will really help when reordering features. Also looking forward to the Sheetmetal speed improvements. Thanks Team.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • garrett_raynergarrett_rayner Member Posts: 2
    The new "Change to Revision" feature just made my week. Thank you for all the hard work, and making an already awesome product better by the month!
  • Paul_ArdenPaul_Arden Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 163
    Just when I get finished individually dragging a whole mess of features up my feature list one at a time :)

    Small touch but it's really great when you need it, particularly since it's easy to mess up the order when doing it one at a time.
  • Song_YikunSong_Yikun Member Posts: 39 PRO
    Great idea of select a mate connector as a reference for an axis. Absolutely Onshape style!👍👍👍
  • EricGauthierEricGauthier Member Posts: 73 ✭✭✭
    - Mate connector as axis
    - Sheet Metal Performance Improvement
    - Advanced Part Configurations Course

    Make my day!  :)
  • GWS50GWS50 Member Posts: 366 PRO
    All improvements are brilliant, thank you.
    especially - Change to version,Mate connector as axis,Multiple reorder


  • Don_Van_ZileDon_Van_Zile Member Posts: 195 PRO

    As always, Onshape is Ontrack. Great update! Like gamer's anticipating the next update, Onshape users only have to wait ~3 weeks (The "Gamification" of CAD era.
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,308
    We very rarely mention new additions to the mobile apps, but I think it is worth mentioning that you can now export 3D models and DXF of a model face in iOS.
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • emagdalenaC2iemagdalenaC2i Member, Developers, Channel partner Posts: 858 ✭✭✭✭✭
    All the improvement are welcome, but I like the most the performance improvements!!

    @NeilCooke maybe you should add the mobile improvements in the changelog.
    And even you could sort all the improvements in:
    • Onshape Standard
    • Professional
    • Enterprise
    • Mobile (IOs)
    • Mobile (Android)
    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
  • 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
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    Missed this update, didn't get the usual notification when logging in.

    Only noticed today when I reordered a feature on the tree and saw you improved the rollback bar and drag&drop UX/UI. It is much better now that it is a thin blue line rather than shuffling the features around in a hard to position way. Thanks a ton for that!

    Can't wait to put your sheet-metal performance claim to the test  ;)
  • lanalana Onshape Employees Posts: 689
    @john_mcclary and others. We continue to work on sheet metal performance. Please report if your models don't demonstrate good improvements.
  • Don_Van_ZileDon_Van_Zile Member Posts: 195 PRO

    Only noticed today when I reordered a feature on the tree and saw you improved the rollback bar and drag&drop UX/UI. It is much better now that it is a thin blue line rather than shuffling the features around in a hard to position way. Thanks a ton for that!

    I have had an issue with this and hope it has improved. Wow, this team is good.
  • manolitomanolito OS Professional Posts: 2 PRO
    Thanks for the revison update guys! This is what we need.
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    NeilCooke said:
    We very rarely mention new additions to the mobile apps, but I think it is worth mentioning that you can now export 3D models and DXF of a model face in iOS.
    Thanks, that is so good, I've always wanted dxf export from the app. Did this happen from the forum posts last week or was it about to happen anyway? 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,308
    @brucebartlett I'd like to say that we can react that quickly, but no, it had been planned for a while.

    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • StephenGStephenG Member Posts: 367 ✭✭✭

    REORDER MULTIPLE FEATURES

    Love the abillity (finally) to reorder multiple selected features. Like the fact the feature selection does not have to be contigious.

    MATE CONNECTOR AS AXIS

    Nice to see Onshape starting to recognize the need to be able to leverage supplemental geometry (non part/model geometry) to facilitate modeling. But instead of piece meal trying to make a Mate Connector into something it really isn't (a coordinate system) why not add the ability to create fully capable coordinate system entities?

    Image how useful it would be to have an single entity with 3 othangonal planes, 3 perpendicular axis, and an origin point that could be referenced/leveraged during the design modeling process.

    Image how useful it would be to create a coordinate system network that belongs to a Part Studio to faciliate part/feature modeling in the context of a Part Studio.

    Image how useful it would be to create a Part where the first feature is a coordinate system making it possible to create named null parts as design place holders.

    Image how useful it would be to be able to attach a coordinate system to part geometry and always have it move with the entity(ies) it was associated to. 

    Leave the functionality of Mate Connector as-is: to faciliate assembly process. Give us true coordinate system entities to facititate geometry creation.

  • Don_Van_ZileDon_Van_Zile Member Posts: 195 PRO
    edited August 2018
    @StephenG I like the way your thinking with the Mate Connector philosophy related to true coordinate system relationships (NX has this, but it's advanced and mature). I see no reason why the Mate Connector couldn't be expanded on in the future with these capabilities. Who knows, it's may be in the "future" development path. I do think they're headed in the right direction regardless for now at least; I'm confident in this agile team and advancing quickly.  ;)
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @StephenG
    All that sounds great for the future, but all I wanted to do was rotate a square part so I'm already happy 😀

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    edited August 2018
    I have learned to like Onshape way of determining direction with plane or face, using a simple sketch line as axis for revolution and using mate connectors as coordinate system. I'm happy with the approach they took here.

    Reordering multiple features at once is awesome, now we can avoid things breaking while reordering :+1:

    Great update!
    //rami
  • Jake_RosenfeldJake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646
    edited August 2018
    Hi All!

    In addition to Mate Connectors new being usable as an axis, they are also usable in fields that take a direction!  Try it out for Direction of Linear Pattern, Translate by distance, or Move face by translation!

    The direction that is used is the Z (blue) direction of the mate connector.
    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    To paraphrase Shakespeare a bit:

    What's in a name?  That which we call a mate connector
    By any other word would provide a coordinate system.
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • StephenGStephenG Member Posts: 367 ✭✭✭
    I would like to take the opportunity to expand on the term "piece meal" I used in my orignal comment.

    "...instead of piece meal trying to make a Mate Connector into something it really isn't..."

    I really appreciate the Onshape's commitment to rolling out incremental improvements every few weeks, but often I am left scratching my head as to how incommplete incremental improvements have been implemented. The Mate Connector As Axis improvement is a prime example.

    Why is the axis assumed/limited to just the "Blue" axis; 
    shouldn't the "Red" or "Green" axis be a perfectly logical option? And why can't a Mate Connector be used to establish a sketch, or create a plane? The Mate Connector in its present form is piss poor local coordinate system.

    I forgot to include an "Image" reason in my orginal comment.

    Image being able to use a coordinate system to establish a frame of reference, different than the Global Coordinate System, such that coordinate locations (XYZ) and projected (DX,DY,DZ) values are returned in a meaninful way.

    Confession  
    I confess I may be carrying forward a bias from my prior MCAD experience with respect to using coordinate system entities, but I do not see it as wanting to do it the "old way".  When I first started using OS, I was surprised the only supplemental 3D entity available was a plane; creating a 3D point, or 3D line required creating a 2D sketch. 
    To quote Dark Vader, "I find your lack of [coordinate systems] disturbing.".Fundementally, Coordinate Systems support workflows that begin at a lower conceptual level without the need to create 3D part geometry and allow for radical geometrical changes in parts design with greatly increased model robustness. You do not absolutely need them in OS, but they would be a wonderful addition instead of slowing expanding what can be done with a Mate Connector.       
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    @StephenG
    I agree that mate connectors need improvement (to be as useful as a general coordinate system) and we're working on it, but are you saying you'd rather us not have shipped "Mate Connector As Axis" until we've implemented other improvements?  I'm not sure what would be gained by that.  In any case, the ability to use a mate connector to establish a sketch is coming soon.
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • APDAPD Member Posts: 40 PRO
    More great work! Love the team at OS!
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