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New Feature: Freeform Spline

Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
I've been working on this one for a while, and I think it's functional and stable enough to go ahead and publish. It's like the native Fit Spline feature, but you can add points to and drag them around in 3D space. There's a bit more to it than than so give this quick tour a watch. I'll probably use it mostly to route wires, ribbons, straps, etc. I may also find that it's helpful for making reference curves when doing surfacing. You can add the feature from here. Let me know if you find it useful or notice a bug with it.

Here's an example of something I'd really dread modeling without it.



Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
Website: ovyl.io
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Comments

  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,694 PRO
    edited January 2021
    ⭐⭐⭐⭐

    Wow! This is fantastic!!

    (┛◉Д◉)┛彡┻━┻      







    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

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  • bruce_williamsbruce_williams Member, Developers Posts: 842 PRO
    That is very impressive and I have been wanting such a tool for mold design on 'organic' shapes.  Thanks for sharing!

    www.accuratepattern.com
  • bruce_williamsbruce_williams Member, Developers Posts: 842 PRO
    And I have to tell you - I am very interested in knots and yours had me going.  I thought, how cool a perfect figure eight.  But it is not an honest knot. :)

    It is a half hitch pulled open funny.  Although looks very cool and I appreciated the brain game.  I am going to make more knots with you feature.  :wink:
    www.accuratepattern.com
  • wayne_sauderwayne_sauder Member, csevp Posts: 472 PRO
    Love it. Is anyone else having trouble getting the video? I keep getting the 404 message. 
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    That is very impressive and I have been wanting such a tool for mold design on 'organic' shapes.  Thanks for sharing!

    Thanks, Bruce. I'm curious what mold design problems you're interested in solving with this. Any examples you can share?
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Love it. Is anyone else having trouble getting the video? I keep getting the 404 message. 
    Just tested it out from another account and it worked. Try this link and let me know if you still have trouble.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • romeograhamromeograham Member Posts: 656 PRO
    Nicely done, as always @Evan_Reese !

    @Jascha_Wilcox check it out.
  • konstantin_shiriazdanovkonstantin_shiriazdanov Member Posts: 1,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Impressive usage of manipulators and edit logic function. :o
  • PrachiPrachi Member, OS Professional Posts: 262 ✭✭✭
    NICE
  • bruce_williamsbruce_williams Member, Developers Posts: 842 PRO
    @Evan_Reese
    You asked how I thought this will help mold design.

    In words - when a parting line is a 3d curve designing the shutoff may be need curves are not equal distant from the parting line curve for blending purposes. A good 3d spline tool should allow creating these blending curves directly. Otherwise we do work arounds like projection or intersecting surfaces. 

    I will put an example together when I can make time.
    www.accuratepattern.com
  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,694 PRO
    I could see this easily being the number one featured feature.

    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
  • sebastian_glanznersebastian_glanzner Member, Developers Posts: 398 PRO
    Very cool!
  • steve_shubinsteve_shubin Member Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2021
    @Evan_Reese
    Very nice feature Evan !
    This is going to come in handy

    @bruce_williams

    Bruce — upon reading your post above, I looked for something to tie the knot in the picture. My iPhone power cord turned into a half hitch before I could even finish. Thanks Bruce. That was interesting

    Looking forward to your blending curve example


  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Impressive usage of manipulators and edit logic function. :o
    Thanks! Almost all of the code editing logic and manipulator functions with a teeny tiny opFitSpline to actually make the line.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • mahirmahir Member, Developers Posts: 1,291 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Very cool, @Evan_Reese! It's like @ilya_baran's Ortho Lines FS but but curvy ;) I agree with @konstantin_shiriazdanov - the use of manipulators is polished and makes this very easy to use.
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    mahir said:
    Very cool, @Evan_Reese! It's like @ilya_baran's Ortho Lines FS but but curvy ;) I agree with @konstantin_shiriazdanov - the use of manipulators is polished and makes this very easy to use.
    Seeing Ortho Lines a few years ago (or whenever that was) was the first time the lightbulb went off for me that this feature should exist, and I've only now gotten enough FS practice to make it. Thanks, @ilya_baran
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    Very nice work, @Evan_Reese! I played with it and it feels very polished.  Using the points manipulator to keep the screen from being cluttered with the triads is a good pattern :)
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Very nice work, @Evan_Reese! I played with it and it feels very polished.  Using the points manipulator to keep the screen from being cluttered with the triads is a good pattern :)
    ☺️☺️☺️
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • Daniel_KaneDaniel_Kane Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 22
    Hey @Evan_Reese, this feature is awesome! Thanks for putting it together and making it public. One point of feedback got brought to my attention:

    When editing in-context, you are unable to reference context vertices directly with this feature. It seems like the native curve tools are able to do this. I'm not sure if there are larger technical challenges associated with this or if it was simply overlooked, but figured I'd pass it on!
  • bryan_lagrangebryan_lagrange Member, User Group Leader Posts: 792 ✭✭✭✭✭
    To everyone who are fans of the feature scripts @Evan_Reese produces and to those who are curious about the Feature Script function of Onshape; this coming Tuesday @Evan_Reese will share the minimum Featurescript skills every Onshape professional should have.   

    Register now for the CST user group meeting. It is open to everyone.

    https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtdu-vqTwoE9PKQ3c_I3xChHmOmB_YUYC4
    Bryan Lagrange
    Twitter: @BryanLAGdesign

  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Hey @Evan_Reese, this feature is awesome! Thanks for putting it together and making it public. One point of feedback got brought to my attention:

    When editing in-context, you are unable to reference context vertices directly with this feature. It seems like the native curve tools are able to do this. I'm not sure if there are larger technical challenges associated with this or if it was simply overlooked, but figured I'd pass it on!
    Thanks, Daniel. Can you share an example of what you mean? I just tried this and it works. I can see why using this in context could be really valuable, so I want to make sure it works.


    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • billy2billy2 Member, OS Professional, Mentor, Developers, User Group Leader Posts: 2,014 PRO
    @Evan_Reese

    This really nice. I like how you can tie a vertex relative to a mate connector so the curve updates with geometry. I'm trying to think of my next design so I can incorporate the use of your curves. I like the flexibility and control over a curve.



  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    edited January 2021
    Thanks, @billy2 I'm thinking of your cool cable routing presentation from the user group. This does seem like it would fit that workflow. I also just added a custom table to list out the lengths of all of the curves (thanks for the idea, @John_P_Desilets ). If you've used the feature in your Part Studio it will show up under "Feature-linked custom tables", so no need to add the table to "My custom tables".

    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • Daniel_KaneDaniel_Kane Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 22
    Hey @Evan_Reese, this feature is awesome! Thanks for putting it together and making it public. One point of feedback got brought to my attention:

    When editing in-context, you are unable to reference context vertices directly with this feature. It seems like the native curve tools are able to do this. I'm not sure if there are larger technical challenges associated with this or if it was simply overlooked, but figured I'd pass it on!
    Thanks, Daniel. Can you share an example of what you mean? I just tried this and it works. I can see why using this in context could be really valuable, so I want to make sure it works.


    @Evan_Reese Ah, this way my own lack of understanding of the tool! I am able to get it working now. Thanks!
  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,694 PRO
    Some check boxes that would be useful:
    • Draw multi-line segment instead of spline.
    • Keep points

    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Some check boxes that would be useful:
    • Draw multi-line segment instead of spline.
    • Keep points
    good ideas here, but I'm wary of feature creep. You may have seen I did a quick "3D Points" feature. Does that serve the purpose of a "keep points"? I considered making it all one feature, but I don't want to pack it with a bunch of operations that aren't going to be used interchangeably. For example, I'd probably never start with a spline, and decide I'd rather have the points instead. Making the points and the spline is a different case, I suppose, but for that you could use 3D points and a normal fit spline. I can also see how a poly-line type of behavior could be interesting, but can't picture the use-case. Can you sell me on them with some examples where they'd be used?
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,694 PRO
    edited January 2021
    A good example for keeping the points:
    You create a spline. Now you want another spline based off of that one, but with different offsets along the same points. Keeping the points of the original spline would let you easily reference the first spline. 

    I have no good defense for multi-line segment  :)



    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    edited January 2021
    A good example for keeping the points:
    You create a spline. Now you want another spline based off of that one, but with different offsets along the same points. Keeping the points of the original spline would let you easily reference the first spline. 

    I have no good defense for multi-line segment  :)


    Ok I like that example :) . I added it.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • MichaelPascoeMichaelPascoe Member Posts: 1,694 PRO
    Yesss

    Learn more about the Gospel of Christ  ( Here )

    CADSharp  -  We make custom features and integrated Onshape apps!   cadsharp.com/featurescripts 💎
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