@miststlkr, I’ll paste my notes here. Some formatting from the email is gone, but oh well.
Bug/annoyance:
The forums! I don’t know what’s wrong with forum search, but it is really bad. I can search for an exact string that I know exists in a post, and it won’t find it. I don’t bother using the forums anymore because I can’t find anything.
The “Share…” link in the Gear menu on the Documents page doesn’t work for me. I don’t see any other way of making my documents public or share my private documents.
I uploaded a STEP file directly into a document (shows up as a tab), but after many days, it still hasn’t been transcoded so I can’t view it. Uploaded as a document, the same file did transcode.
When viewing others’ public documents, I’d like if the read-only mode was more liberal in what you can do. I’d like to see the sketches, check dimensions, suppress features, etc. It’s annoying to have to save it to your own documents first.
Minor bug:
Show that file import/transcoding is queued/in progress. I uploaded a STEP file as a document, and it eventually converted it, but at the time, I didn’t know it was happening. If I wasn’t too lazy to delete the file (since I uploaded it but it wouldn’t preview), I would have concluded that it just wasn’t going to work.
Chrome isn’t offering to save my Onshape password for me. I don’t know if this is my problem or yours or Google’s.
When a text box first appears (editing a dimension, renaming a part or feature, etc.), clicking and dragging acts to move the text, not highlight it. It’s slightly annoying to have to click once to deselect before clicking to highlight part of the text.
Major feature requests:
Copy/paste - I’d like to be able to copy/paste sketch lines in a sketch, sketch lines between sketches, sketches between part studios, parts between part studios, parts and part studios and assemblies between documents… right now, the lack of copy/paste in most context menus is distressing.
Equation support with local and global variables. From the documentation, it looks like these are in the works, so I’m glad for that!
Minor feature requests:
Option to automatically move view normal to sketch plane when editing a sketch.
More liberal use of icons in context menus and along the left action history pane would be super useful. I like to rename my actions in the history pane, but I need those icons to signify what kind of feature they are.
Tapered extrude/extrude to point/lofted extrude. Here’s an example of its use in Solidworks. I have tried to make a bevel gear in Onshape using standard extrude along with the Draft feature, but I don’t think it’s quite right.
Allow application of coincident constraint to midpoint of line in more instances. For example, allow dragging a line and have its midpoint snap to a point, endpoint, or other midpoint.
3-Point Arc tool modification where you select 1. the axis of rotation, 2. start of arc, 3. end of arc.
“E” for extrude, rather than “Shift+E”. I use that more than the equal constraint, and why not make “=” the equal constraint?
When applying a feature, such as fillet, chamfer, etc., if the dimensions are too large (fillet is too large), provide a maximum size so that we can at least see things happening.
Sketch fillet tool doesn’t work at all if the radius is too large. The best you can do currently is create a sketch corner large enough to accommodate the current fillet radius, apply fillet there, and then adjust the radius down.
The automatic select feature feels like I’m trying to play lego with my hands covered in peanut butter. It’s not so bad in the main view, but in the Features list (left pane), I am almost always clicking 5 or 6 times before I can rename something. The biggest issue in the main view is when I’m in a sketch and I select the plane behind it (is there any good reason to select a plane while editing a sketch?). Perhaps options to turn it off, one toggle for the main view, and one for the left pane.
Some of his direct responses to my questions:
When you upload a STEP file you need to translate it into the part studio (right click and select “translate”). By uploading it you are just putting it into the document.
To view normal hit the “n” button. Shortcuts can be found under the “?” button
Some very good points. The Share link works fine for me. But you already sorted that you were running something that blocked it. I run OnShape in an Incognito window so I can set certain plugins which conflict with it to not run while in incognito.
Agree with the copy/paste for sure, that is annoying as hell. And on the read-only restrictions. Equation support 100000% agree a required feature.
Hadn’t thought of that, it would be handy so long as it wasn’t locked to that view or anything.
I just rename as “Sketch - connector pin” or whatever for the time being
Whatever tool that was that duplicated the notch around the gear, we need that. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do that in OnShape. The other forms of extrude are likely “never knew I needed them till I realized I didn’t have hem” because I don’t know how I would use them, but more is gooder.
I’d love to see some form of help on this one too. I’ve tried an oversized fillet/chamfer a couple times and it’s annoying that it doesn’t just say something like “value out of range, max is: xxx”
I attended one of OnShape’s webinars this morning and found it quite useful! It was just 30 min long, uses Citrix GoToWebinar (so I’m not sure whether there’s Linux support), and they appear to have them quite often.
This webinar was on direct editing of existing bodies (short video with highlights), even imported bodies that have no history or editable feature list.
The one feature I’d like to share with everyone, because it’s easy to convey and also super useful, is the Create Selection tool. It’s a smart-select tool that saves you from having to click every face of a feature manually. You can access it in the right click menu, or by clicking the big mouse cursor icon as described in the documentation.
I’ve been unable to get the audio portion of the webinar to work on my linux box. I was able to install the GoToWebinar app on my android phone and get the audio working that way.
OnShape also makes the webinars available on the web afterwards, and I’ve had no problems playing those videos (after installing some gstreamer/ffmpeg libs). The recorded videos are in mp4 format.
I really like OnShape, and they have a ton of tutorial videos available for learning various aspects of the program. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for free cad.
Just a note that I received an email saying that OnShape is considering altering some aspects of the free plan, to include document size (MB) limitations for private documents, and to remove the document deactivation feature. For reference, my most complex document is over the proposed MB limit, so I would have to either pay $100/mo or make it public (I would do the latter).
If anyone has questions, ideas, or suggestions regarding the free plan, now’s the time to voice your thoughts. I personally think there’s probably space for a cheaper plan, or maybe $10/mo for single file exemptions, or a $10 one-time-fee to archive a file, or something like that.
A tip for people doing laser cut designs in OnShape. Often, a part is designed using multiple sketches, extrusions (for punching holes), face offsets, face patterns, fillets, etc. By the time the part is completed, no single sketch serves as an acceptable representation of the part you want to build, so the option to export a sketch as a DXF/DWG (right click menu on any Sketch) isn’t very useful.
I just learned that you can instead right click on any planar face, and there will also be an option to Export as DXF/DWG! I wish I’d known this feature a few weeks ago, to make export of @interlock’s laptop stand simpler. For ease of exporting, we ended up doing the fillets in the sketch rather than as a 3D feature, but now that I know how to export this way, I would choose to have all fillets applied post-extrude.
Inkscape note: I tried exporting a gear which contained splines for the teeth, and Inkscape didn’t know what to do with them (they were missing). I then opened it in QCad and resaved it as DXF, and then was able to import into Inkscape. The only problem remaining was the splines were now made of straight segments, so I had to select the nodes and convert them to smooth nodes.
Onshape now has a lofting feature! Lofts are a kind of nonlinear extrude: you choose a start and end face, and optionally some number of guide paths, and create a smooth extrusion between those two faces. See a short video here. I’m excited because now I can make bevel gears!
There are some new Onshape features that I could have definitely made use of in the past:
Copy/Paste Sketches.
Optional start and stop positions for extrude (now your extrusion doesn’t have to start on your sketch plane).
Project curved edges of cylinders onto sketch.
There are some big updates to Onshape, including importing DXF/DWG into a sketch, and derived parts and sketches! Also, the Onshape for Android app is out.
Additionally, they’re adjusting the limits for the Free Plan this month. The major limitation appears to be 100MB for private documents. That seems like a lot, but the MB usage numbers that Onshape states per file seem greatly inflated compared to what I’d expect. Also, private documents that are shared with you seem to count toward your private document limit (but not the storage limit). Also, there’s now a Trash folder, so any documents still in there count toward your limit. Other than that, I’m happy with the changes.
Also, if you ever become a paid user, accumulate many (>10) private documents, and then go back to free:
You’ll still be able to view and edit your existing private documents
You will no longer be able to view or edit private documents that others have shared with you
You will not be able to create any new private documents
You will have the option of deleting or making private documents public, in order to lift the restrictions stated above
It is not clear how the 100MB limit is enforced in these situations.
This latest update brought a big feature for me (Variables) and another feature I’ve seen others here wish existed (images in sketches). Thanks to Variables, it’s now actually practical to make parametric parts (say, a generic gear part with configurable teeth and diameter). The way variables are implemented is unusual (they show up in the feature list like most other commands), and I’ll have to play with it to see what that’s like. Unfortunately, variable scope is limited to the current Part Studio, so no variables in Assemblies or between Part Studios yet.
Also trying to make that transition… OnShape started strong but it felt
like their improvements were too little, too late. It’s still nice for an
online tool to knock out a quick design, and I’m very impressed at the
things that you [Shane] can do in it, but I an going to start trying to
learn Fusion360 for more routine work I think.
Yeah, I intend to learn Fusion 360 as well on some future project, but at this point I have no access to CAM tools, and I haven’t looked into Fusion 360’s support enough to know whether their CAM is actually likely to be worth using, or if it just sort of works enough with some tools that they can make a bullet point out of it. I expect you’d be able to respond to that.
I’ll likely start doing my larger projects in Fusion 360, as it is the more feature-complete of the two products, although OnShape has always been easier and more fun to use than Autodesk’s offerings.
The CAM is excellent. It’s complete enough for me using it in an
industrial setting. I’m actually re-programming parts from our legacy CAM
package into Fusion as they come up. Fusion’s interface is completely new
from all other Autodesk UI’s as far as I know, so don’t let that hold you
back. They are pushing hard to gain market share with this product.
Ok, good to know! That’s encouraging and a big draw for sure!
The interface seemed quite similar to Inventor, which is what I’ve used the most. I have yet to use 360 enough to know whether debugging constraint conflicts is any easier. OnShape does it quite well, because they let you do an action even if it breaks things, and then it highlights in red everything that is upset. You then have the option to Undo, or fix the model yourself.
