Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.

First time visiting? Here are some places to start:
  1. Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
  2. Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
  3. Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
  4. Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.

If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.

Improvements to Onshape - November 12th, 2019

2

Comments

  • billyzelsnackbillyzelsnack Member Posts: 77 ✭✭
    Glorious update!
  • gerhard_swanepoelgerhard_swanepoel Member Posts: 29 PRO
    Great improvements! Especially composite parts and view orientation.
  • GuidoNADECGuidoNADEC Member Posts: 27 PRO
    Composite parts and view orientation. Really nice. Thanks
  • andrew_southenandrew_southen Member Posts: 11
    I'm just an absolute beginner, not sure if this is the correct place to ask the question, if it's not, feel free to point me in the right direction as to where the correct place to ask would be. Anyway, looking at the first video on composite parts, what would be the best way to draw up weldments such as the base, constructed of SHS, RHS & pipe sections in Onshape? What are the advantages/disadvantages to using the Beams feature script, as opposed to creating all the individual parts. Which it looks like has been done in the composite part video. Am I wrong in my assumptions that the example was created that way? 

    I'm just trying to figure out best practice as to how to go about creating such drawings. Just a brief explanation of a logical process would be great. For something like a flat deck truck tray for example. No moving parts, compound curves or anything like that. Draw it all in a single part studio? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    I'm just an absolute beginner, not sure if this is the correct place to ask the question, if it's not, feel free to point me in the right direction as to where the correct place to ask would be. Anyway, looking at the first video on composite parts, what would be the best way to draw up weldments such as the base, constructed of SHS, RHS & pipe sections in Onshape? What are the advantages/disadvantages to using the Beams feature script, as opposed to creating all the individual parts. Which it looks like has been done in the composite part video. Am I wrong in my assumptions that the example was created that way? 

    I'm just trying to figure out best practice as to how to go about creating such drawings. Just a brief explanation of a logical process would be great. For something like a flat deck truck tray for example. No moving parts, compound curves or anything like that. Draw it all in a single part studio? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
    The fastest and easiest way would be to use the Beams feature which will take care of all the profiles and trimming/intersections for you. There's no requirement to use Composite Parts unless you want to insert the entire weldment into an assembly as one part. One Part Studio, one or more sketches, several Beam features should do it. If you get stuck, just post in the Community Support category.
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • andrew_southenandrew_southen Member Posts: 11
    NeilCooke said:
    I'm just an absolute beginner, not sure if this is the correct place to ask the question, if it's not, feel free to point me in the right direction as to where the correct place to ask would be. Anyway, looking at the first video on composite parts, what would be the best way to draw up weldments such as the base, constructed of SHS, RHS & pipe sections in Onshape? What are the advantages/disadvantages to using the Beams feature script, as opposed to creating all the individual parts. Which it looks like has been done in the composite part video. Am I wrong in my assumptions that the example was created that way? 

    I'm just trying to figure out best practice as to how to go about creating such drawings. Just a brief explanation of a logical process would be great. For something like a flat deck truck tray for example. No moving parts, compound curves or anything like that. Draw it all in a single part studio? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
    The fastest and easiest way would be to use the Beams feature which will take care of all the profiles and trimming/intersections for you. There's no requirement to use Composite Parts unless you want to insert the entire weldment into an assembly as one part. One Part Studio, one or more sketches, several Beam features should do it. If you get stuck, just post in the Community Support category.
    Excellent. Thank you very much for the reply. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't heading completely off in the wrong direction. Any further questions/problems or issues I run into, I'll head over to the community support area. Cheers 
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Wowzers.  I'm happy if one improvement is appropriate to our use cases but this time it's impossible to single out just one improvement, they're all going to be great.  Thanks devs!
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    edited November 2019
    In addition to all the cool reasons described in this thread to use Composite parts, there was another driver. 
    A composite part can be included in a Release Candidate. By allowing that, it now becomes possible to:
    • Revision manage surfaces, curves and meshes - things you couldn't Rev manage before.
    • PUT MESHES INTO AN ASSEMBLY! :)

    Image result for mind blown minion


    EDIT - I am being told that it's a bug that you can put a mesh into an Assembly! Do not expect this to last for long - sorry (I am sure that it will be back soon ;)).


    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • don_williams909don_williams909 Member Posts: 138 PRO
    edited November 2019
    LOVE the Composite Part.  I am very frequently importing speaker drivers from vendors, and this will save me hours of work in creating assemblies of the parts.

    That said....  Isn't this just an Assembly with a different name?  A rose is still a rose...

    Does creating a composite part automatically create part relations / mates?

    If you create a composite part, and choose the "Closed" option, what happens to the assigned material densities of the individual parts?
    If those densities disappear, how do we then find the CoG of the "Composite Part".

    Every single part I use has to have a material assigned, so that I can calculate the CoG of the full assembly.  If those go by the way side... I'm toast.

  • nbennettnbennett Member Posts: 5 PRO
    Great update, the composite parts surprised me actually but this a highly appreciated addition! This will be put to use immediately and save us a lot of time and headache when dealing with imported purchased parts among other things. Really appreciated!

    I'm just curious how performance compares with the alternative of either booleaning our way to a single part or dumping everything into an assembly? Seems like a lot of data gets dragged along to the top level when using these two options (though I really can't be sure what exactly is happening behind the scenes), which appears to stack up and slow down large assemblies. Can we expect to see gains in this area when utilizing composite parts, and would you suggest exporting and re-importing a composite part as a further step if we are experiencing performance issues? Thanks again
  • PeteYodisPeteYodis Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 516



    @Song_Yikun Here is the what's new post for that one: 
     

    Improvements to Onshape - October 17th, 2019 — Onshape

  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    LOVE the Composite Part.  I am very frequently importing speaker drivers from vendors, and this will save me hours of work in creating assemblies of the parts.

    That said....  Isn't this just an Assembly with a different name?  A rose is still a rose...

    Does creating a composite part automatically create part relations / mates?

    If you create a composite part, and choose the "Closed" option, what happens to the assigned material densities of the individual parts?
    If those densities disappear, how do we then find the CoG of the "Composite Part".

    Every single part I use has to have a material assigned, so that I can calculate the CoG of the full assembly.  If those go by the way side... I'm toast.

    It is similar to an assembly with parts all grouped. If you use "closed" it is all one material (that you must assign), if you use "open" then it will inherit the material properties of all its constituent parts.
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • Henk_de_VlaamHenk_de_Vlaam Member, Developers Posts: 237 ✭✭✭
    NeilCooke said:
    [...] 

    If you create a composite part, and choose the "Closed" option, what happens to the assigned material densities of the individual parts?
    If those densities disappear, how do we then find the CoG of the "Composite Part".

    Every single part I use has to have a material assigned, so that I can calculate the CoG of the full assembly.  If those go by the way side... I'm toast.

    It is similar to an assembly with parts all grouped. If you use "closed" it is all one material (that you must assign), if you use "open" then it will inherit the material properties of all its constituent parts.

    @NeilCooke, this is great.

    I assigned material and a colour to separate parts and composized them while keeping the Close option unchecked. Now the composized parts had different colours and I changed the appearance of the composite part to one colour. That worked, however, after a while I liked to delete the appearance of the comp. part and gave the separate parts there own colour. How do I that? 
      
    Henk de Vlaam (NL)
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    @Henk_de_V If the composite is open, you can just assign a color to a constituent.  Assigning the color to an open composite is equivalent to assigning a color to every constituent.
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    Henk_de_V said:
    NeilCooke said:
    [...] 

    If you create a composite part, and choose the "Closed" option, what happens to the assigned material densities of the individual parts?
    If those densities disappear, how do we then find the CoG of the "Composite Part".

    Every single part I use has to have a material assigned, so that I can calculate the CoG of the full assembly.  If those go by the way side... I'm toast.

    It is similar to an assembly with parts all grouped. If you use "closed" it is all one material (that you must assign), if you use "open" then it will inherit the material properties of all its constituent parts.

    @NeilCooke, this is great.

    I assigned material and a colour to separate parts and composized them while keeping the Close option unchecked. Now the composized parts had different colours and I changed the appearance of the composite part to one colour. That worked, however, after a while I liked to delete the appearance of the comp. part and gave the separate parts there own colour. How do I that? 
      
    Once you assign a metrial or appearance to a "composized" part (I like that  :D) it overrides everything else and cannot be undone (apart from using the document history). The only other way is to delete and recreate the composite part but if you've used it elsewhere (assembly) it will have a different ID and hence will be broken. As @ilya_baran says, you can set the colors manually if you can remember what they were.
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • Henk_de_VlaamHenk_de_Vlaam Member, Developers Posts: 237 ✭✭✭
    @NeilCooke, composized part was a kind of Henk_d_V-'dutch' translation for constituent.  :s 
    But it's clear now: refresh the colors of the 'composized' parts.
    Henk de Vlaam (NL)
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,470 PRO
    NeilCooke said:
    Kind of sucks that the filter displays public documents too..

    It would be nice if there was a filter button to only show documents Owned/Shared by me 
    You have to select My Onshape or Created by me first before using the advanced search.
    It should be default to concentrate on 'local' documents and only require extra click if you wan't to see also public documents. 
    //rami
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    3dcad said:
    NeilCooke said:
    Kind of sucks that the filter displays public documents too..

    It would be nice if there was a filter button to only show documents Owned/Shared by me 
    You have to select My Onshape or Created by me first before using the advanced search.
    It should be default to concentrate on 'local' documents and only require extra click if you wan't to see also public documents. 
    Yes, I can't remember where exactly it happens but often have to change the filter from public doc's.  The result I want is always to show my documents as default, if I was searching for something public, which is virtually never, I would be happy to change to that filter not have come up as default. 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • tim_hess427tim_hess427 Member Posts: 648 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019
    @brucebartlett , @3dcad - I agree! I think it happens when trying to "insert" one thing into another and you search through "Other Documents".  For example, when adding a part to an assembly, or replacing a part on a drawing. 

    I didn't see an improvement request for this, so I created one here: https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/12608/change-search-default-to-private-documents-for-paid-accounts-when-searching-other-documents/p1?new=1

  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @tim_hess427 Vote cast :+1:
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited November 2019
    Hi.
    Anyone else having problems with "CUSTOMIZE USER DEFINED FEATURES IN TOOLBAR"?  I can modify all the standard feature icon locations just fine but am unable to drag any FS icons. (Old or brand new docs.)

    ***Edit - I was doing it wrong, see Neil's method below.

    Cheers, Owen S.

    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    Hi.
    Anyone else having problems with "CUSTOMIZE USER DEFINED FEATURES IN TOOLBAR"?  I can modify all the standard feature icon locations just fine but am unable to drag any FS icons. (Old or brand new docs.)
    Cheers, Owen S.

    OK, so this can be a little tricky depending upon your set up:
    1. If you have a widescreen monitor, so that the icons move out of the icon drop-down, then you can move them individually.
    2. If all your icons are in the drop-down (because you have so many), remove the entire group then add them back one by one

    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • bruce_williamsbruce_williams Member, Developers Posts: 842 PRO
    @NeilCooke
    Thanks for demonstrating that - I did not get it either.  Nice to be able to make groups and set them in order.   

    Is it possible to force a group to be a 'pull down'?  The group becomes a pull down if graphics squeezes them but would be nice to have big screen graphics and simplify the menu bar.   Then naming the group will be IR icing.
    www.accuratepattern.com
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    @NeilCooke
    Thanks for demonstrating that - I did not get it either.  Nice to be able to make groups and set them in order.   

    Is it possible to force a group to be a 'pull down'?  The group becomes a pull down if graphics squeezes them but would be nice to have big screen graphics and simplify the menu bar.   Then naming the group will be IR icing.
    I already put in my own internal request to be able to do that, but a customer-driven IR will add more weight...
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited November 2019
    Hi Neil.  Gotcha, thanks, appreciate the tutorial. :+1:
    My layout was a bit of both, all the standard icons fit without drop-downs but the 50-odd FS icons were in a group.   After "unpacking" the FS group as you describe all worked as expected.
    A couple of observations:-
    (a) Adding them all back one a time was a bit tedious, but a fair price to pay for customization.  That said it'd be nice one day to be able to drag everything after a "Control-A" in one hit.
    (b) The drop down was only created after saving the changes, whilst editing the icons were side by side, so I ran out of screen width before adding them all back in. It still worked, they could be added, they just fell off the side.
    Tiny niggles, and I love having my own FS menus now.
    Thanks again.
    Owen S.

    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • NeilCookeNeilCooke Moderator, Onshape Employees Posts: 5,307
    @owen_sparks - changing the zoom level of your browser to 25% is another little trick you can use
    Senior Director, Technical Services, EMEAI
  • bruce_williamsbruce_williams Member, Developers Posts: 842 PRO
    edited November 2019
    @owen_sparks good points.  Sure makes FS easier to find though!

    here is the IR on "Menu groups - pull down, name, and icon"  Please add your votes!
    www.accuratepattern.com
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    @NeilCooke
    Thanks for demonstrating that - I did not get it either.  Nice to be able to make groups and set them in order.   

    Is it possible to force a group to be a 'pull down'?  The group becomes a pull down if graphics squeezes them but would be nice to have big screen graphics and simplify the menu bar.   Then naming the group will be IR icing.
    I'd vote for that.  Being able to decide which menus become drop-down first would be great :)
    O.S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    Thanks @bruce_williams, vote cast.  Methinks your hyperlink is borked though o:)
    OS
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
Sign In or Register to comment.