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Improvements to Onshape - October 20th, 2018

cody_armstrongcody_armstrong Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers, csevp Posts: 213
edited October 2018 in New in Onshape
It has been 3 weeks since our last update of Onshape and we are ready again with another big list of improvements. Many of these have been highly requested, so let's get started.

CAD IMPROVEMENTS

DISPLAY STATES

You can now create Display States in Onshape Assemblies. Display States allow you to capture the hide/show state of parts or subassemblies and reuse it in the future.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/ps5jkmiztt


IMPORT IMPROVEMENTS

Improvements have been made to the import process to make it more intuitive. The import dialog has been changed to better illustrate the various import options and there is now smarter logic in place to handle importing geometry in the correct orientation.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/m73d2xnop5


NEW ARROWHEAD TYPES IN ONSHAPE DRAWINGS

You will find two new arrowhead types in the Drawing properties flyout. They include no arrowhead and a tick mark.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/kes2nvg7lh


EDIT VIEW LABEL PROPERTIES IN ONSHAPE DRAWINGS

You can now edit the font, font size, font style, and color of view labels in Onshape Drawings. You will find these new options in the Drawing Properties flyout under the "Views" tab.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/6srmudj80y


EXPORT PERMISSIONS FOR ANONYMOUS LINKS

You will find a new "export" option when creating an anonymous link to share. This is useful if you want to share with someone that does not have an Onshape account but needs the ability to export your model.



WARNING WHEN CREATING VERSION WITH OUTDATED DRAWING

Now when you create a version in a Document that has an out of date drawing you will see a warning.



EXPORT MESH

You can now export mesh geometry to STL, Parasolid, Collada, and Rhino. In the past, mesh data could not be exported.

PROFESSIONAL FEATURES

SET CUSTOM PROPERTIES WITH FEATURESCRIPT

You can now set custom properties in FeatureScript with the setProperty function. This new functionality in setProperty allows the FeatureScript author to assign values from the model directly to properties of that part.

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/bstu3dxe9e

CUSTOM REVISION SCHEMES

You can now define a custom revision scheme using an imported text file. 

https://onshape.wistia.com/medias/5h5q4xordc


ENTERPRISE FEATURES

ALLOW ANONYMOUS LINK SHARING

As an admin or owner of an Enterprise in Onshape, you will find a new global permission to allow anonymous link sharing. This is off by default and was not possible in the past.



FILTER BY FOLDER IN ONSHAPE ENTERPRISE

When viewing the Project Dashboard, you can now filter by a folder within the Project.



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
    Nice, very much like the set custom property feature.
    Thanks folks,
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • romeograhamromeograham Member Posts: 656 PRO
    I like the "export for anonymous links" feature!

    Thanks for the hard work!
    Romeo
  • jakeramsleyjakeramsley Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 657
    Nice, very much like the set custom property feature.
    Thanks folks,
    Owen S.
    Hi owen_sparks,

    This is a document my coworker Jason Slingerland put together for a couple examples (it uses standard properties and his company owned property, but can be easily modified).  The bounding box is put in Title 2 property and mass is put in Title 3.  This isn't meant to be how computed properties are done, but is an understandable example of how to use setting custom properties.

    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0ce17b6f297c6baae1ea4f31/w/bf0718cfe1b17361423f8bb1/e/07de51f875e8975ca4de848c
    Jake Ramsley

    Director of Quality Engineering & Release Manager              onshape.com
  • billyzelsnackbillyzelsnack Member Posts: 77 ✭✭
    Display states is super useful. Awesome. Hopefully the refresh button will make its way to named positions soon too.
  • moran_hagormoran_hagor Member Posts: 8 PRO
    Display states is super useful. Awesome. Hopefully the refresh button will make its way to named positions soon too.
    Thanks folks for all the good work!
    I'd be very happy to see under display states, the ability to set new appearances to parts (that will only apply at assembly mode) , and the ability to be able to create a drawing that will not show parts that are hidden in that display state.
  • romeograhamromeograham Member Posts: 656 PRO
    Nice, very much like the set custom property feature.
    Thanks folks,
    Owen S.
    Hi owen_sparks,

    This is a document my coworker Jason Slingerland put together for a couple examples (it uses standard properties and his company owned property, but can be easily modified).  The bounding box is put in Title 2 property and mass is put in Title 3.  This isn't meant to be how computed properties are done, but is an understandable example of how to use setting custom properties.

    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0ce17b6f297c6baae1ea4f31/w/bf0718cfe1b17361423f8bb1/e/07de51f875e8975ca4de848c
    @jakeramsley do you have any idea how to get the Mass property in this example to fill in the actual mass of the part? (the linked example allows you put put in a value, but doesn't return the calculated mass of the part).

    thanks!
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    edited October 2018
    Nice set once again. :+1:

    My favorite would be assembly display states and there's already good ideas to make it even better by @moran_hagor

    For import, I was hoping to see drag&drop area for quick import from email client. It's frustrating to save locally first and then use file dialog to search something named 982638476_82934.dwg or to come up with a new name before you have seen what's in..

    There's few things that I would expect to get more priority at this point:
    - colored faces/features,
    - search only MY documents by default when inserting into assy,
    - other requests that flow on top of the list in forum ir list

    ...I think that's all, no wait there's one more

    - Assembly configurations !! ;)
    //rami
  • michael_mcclainmichael_mcclain Member Posts: 198 PRO
    I agree with @john_mcclary that the functionality isn't complete feeling if not extended all the way to drawings.

    But knowing how Onshape develops I feel that it is a foundation for more than just one feature/functionality and we will see something truly exciting in the next 3-6 weeks.

    I assume they released this since it is ready. Then they will alter future course/behavior of the functionality once in the court of public opinion and the improvement requests start coming.
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    Right, I have a lot of faith in Onshape's dev team, but honestly I would have not released something that is 5% useful, when just a small step into drawings would put it at 85% useful.
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Hi folks.

    In a similar thought train I presume the custom property id deconflicts identically named custom properties across companies?

    If so this raises two questions:-
    (Q1) Does that mean we can share documents with custom properties outside of a company, with or without setting them with FS and not break stuff?
    (Q2) Does this same strategy lend itself to Company-wide or World-wide sharing of labels?  This would rate highly for us. If so I'm all for the laying the groundwork approach.  

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • MBartlett21MBartlett21 Member, OS Professional, Developers Posts: 2,034 EDU
    edited October 2018
    Nice, very much like the set custom property feature.
    Thanks folks,
    Owen S.
    Hi owen_sparks,

    This is a document my coworker Jason Slingerland put together for a couple examples (it uses standard properties and his company owned property, but can be easily modified).  The bounding box is put in Title 2 property and mass is put in Title 3.  This isn't meant to be how computed properties are done, but is an understandable example of how to use setting custom properties.

    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/0ce17b6f297c6baae1ea4f31/w/bf0718cfe1b17361423f8bb1/e/07de51f875e8975ca4de848c
    @jakeramsley do you have any idea how to get the Mass property in this example to fill in the actual mass of the part? (the linked example allows you put put in a value, but doesn't return the calculated mass of the part).

    thanks!
    You can use this FS, which you can put a density or weight into and it will set the part's material
    https://cad.onshape.com/documents/3ca261a95938af152088fca8
    mb - draftsman - also FS author: View FeatureScripts
    IR for AS/NZS 1100
  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    Right, I have a lot of faith in Onshape's dev team, but honestly I would have not released something that is 5% useful, when just a small step into drawings would put it at 85% useful.
    THIS. I would rather Onshape say we have nothing completely ready to put in an update than to give us something that leads only to disappointment because it is essentially useless as is. Good design is often knowing when to say "no" to something. 
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Great to see display states come into assemblies :) . This will be very useful, I spend a lot of time setting up and re-setting up assemblies displays. I look forward to seeing these, along with positions being available in drawings too, this is a must have and also hopefully we will see full blown configs in the not to distance future. 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • jakeramsleyjakeramsley Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 657
    Hi folks.

    In a similar thought train I presume the custom property id deconflicts identically named custom properties across companies?

    If so this raises two questions:-
    (Q1) Does that mean we can share documents with custom properties outside of a company, with or without setting them with FS and not break stuff?
    (Q2) Does this same strategy lend itself to Company-wide or World-wide sharing of labels?  This would rate highly for us. If so I'm all for the laying the groundwork approach.  

    Owen S.
    Hi owen_sparks,

    Custom properties are owned by a company and the ability to use them in a document is dependent on the owner of the document.  If a document is owned by a company, then those set of custom properties can be used.  Sharing the document to a user external to the company (either explicitly or by link) will not break those properties.

    IDs are used throughout Onshape to be unique identifiers.  In some cases we enforce other fields to be unique as well, for various reasons, but by using IDs it allows individual users/companies/team/etc to do similar things without conflicts.
    Jake Ramsley

    Director of Quality Engineering & Release Manager              onshape.com
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Thanks for the info, and the example doc you posted about earlier, much appreciated.

    Also whilst I'm here, I'd like to say we're delighted with the display states as they stand. :+1:

    We're mostly gleefully immune to drawings in this dept., if we can't specify the part from the solid we don't want to get involved, though a new laser may drag us back to times past of generating blasted dxf's! Boooooooooooooooo.

    Cheers,

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,890 PRO
    @owen_sparks well, you don't need to generate a drawing to make a flat dxf. You may be able to avoid that even still :smile:
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Thanks @john_mcclary Fingers crossed.  :)
    I wish the export face to dxf would include all faces at the same z height; as it stands there's still a lot of projecting stuff onto a new sketch to catch all the islands that tend to exist, especially tedious if text is driven by configurations.  We need a project all, not just the bits OS feels like onto sketch...  I really, rally, really, like not having to deal with this crap when generating CNC toolpaths from step files!
    Ho-hum, if we have a baby death star to play with it'll all be worth it in the end.
    Thanks for the hint,
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Quick follow up on the custom property via FS. 

    If the property is a string then all is easy.  If its a list then it'd be great if the IDE presented the options defined in a similar "intelisense-like" list when writing the FS.  Is this likely to make it's way onto the radar?  Seems a bit daft to have to keep checking back onto the company properties page to see what the options are for a property.

    Thanks, and keep up the awesome development,
    Owen S.

    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • adrian_vlzkzadrian_vlzkz Member Posts: 258 PRO
    Everytime there is a Pro or Enterprise update B) :

    Image result for napoleon dynamite yes gif
    Adrian V. | Onshape Ambassador
    CAD Engineering Manager
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    @owen_sparks
    If the property is a string then all is easy.  If its a list then it'd be great if the IDE presented the options defined in a similar "intelisense-like" list when writing the FS.  Is this likely to make it's way onto the radar?  Seems a bit daft to have to keep checking back onto the company properties page to see what the options are for a property.
    This was discussed but is not scheduled.  Please create an improvement request to help us prioritize.
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @ilya_baran WILCO
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • Jake_RosenfeldJake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646
    One thing that could be a nice workaround for custom property ids for now is to create a FeatureScript tab in a shared document that has functions like these for each of your custom properties:

    export function getFooBarosityCustomPropertyId()
    {
        return "aabbcc1122334455ggbb";
    }

    Then whenever you want to make a custom feature that needs to change your custom property, you can import the file that contains all your custom property id getters and just call the one-source-of-truth function.
    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @Jake_Rosenfeld, that's great, you should really consider doing this for a living.

    Thanks, Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @jakeramsley
    I really think you should defend your honour and challenge him to a duel.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • john_mceleneyjohn_mceleney Onshape Employees Posts: 57
    @jakeramsley
    I really think you should defend your honour and challenge him to a duel.
    Oh I don't think that'll be a fair fight : -)
  • john_mceleneyjohn_mceleney Onshape Employees Posts: 57
    @jakeramsley
    I really think you should defend your honour and challenge him to a duel.
    Oh I don't think that'll be a fair fight : -)
    Just to be clear, I am not saying for whom it would not be fair : -)
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited October 2018
    So is this a coding duel, a flintlocks at dawn duel, a star-wars trivia duel or a tequila shots duel...
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
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