The last time I was let loose on a “What's New” blog post was over two years ago – that's 37 updates! So it’s personally a great honor for me to present the latest release of Onshape. Regardless of my joy in delivering the news, there are a lot of juicy tidbits here for you to digest. Let’s take a look...
CAD IMPROVEMENTS
CREATING AND RENAMING DOCUMENTS
New Onshape Documents can now be created directly from your browser's address bar using this new, unique URL: cad.new
Google has created a new top-level domain name extension called “.new” exclusively for performing new actions online. Onshape has registered the domain name cad.new for your convenience as a quick and memorable shortcut to create new Documents without having to go to the Documents page first.
You can also perform the same action using the longer URL: cad.onshape.com/new. Documents can be named before they are created using the URL pattern: cad.onshape.com/new?name=<docname>.
So, for example, to create a Document called "Library Parts," using standard URL notation, you would enter “cad.onshape.com/new?name=Library%20Parts.” This capability is currently not available in Onshape Enterprise due to the use of custom domain names.
Once a Document has been created, it can be renamed by clicking on the Document title and entering a new name – this works on any open Document to make renaming much faster.
HIDE ALL CONSTRUCTION GEOMETRY
Modeling can be a messy business with Origins, Planes, Sketches, Curves, Mates, Mate Connectors and Derived construction geometry cluttering up your view. So a new keyboard shortcut, “Shift + P,” has been added to hide all these construction types to leave you with solid and surface geometry only. This also works in Onshape Assemblies, hiding all construction geometry in subassemblies at the same time. Note: There is no equivalent “Show All” because who would want to do that?
DIMENSION PALETTE IMPROVEMENTS
Radial dimensions can now be converted into Diameter dimensions and vice versa via a dedicated button on the Dimension Palette. Note-style Chamfer dimensions can also now be customized with the usual options available in the Dimension Palette.
MULTIPLE HOLE CALLOUT LEADERS AND NODES
Hole Callouts can now have multiple leaders to annotate similar sized holes to improve drawing clarity. Only holes having the exact same properties, either created by the same feature or by multiple features, may be selected. Leaders may also have one or more nodes (or "jogs") to make drawings easier to create and read.
BROKEN VIEW ALIGNMENT
Broken Views now maintain alignment with any projected views using the center of each view as the point of alignment.
CURVES IN DRAWINGS
Curves can now be displayed in Drawings. A new filter button is available on the Insert dialog that will allow you to select Curves from a Part Studio. Curves that belong to a Composite Part can also now be shown on a Drawing.
GROUPING CALLOUTS AND DIMENSIONS
Callouts such as balloons and revision symbols can now be attached or grouped to drawing dimensions. When the dimension or view is moved, the callout will move with it. Callouts can either be grouped manually or snapped to different locations around dimension text. After snapping or grouping, the positions of each callout can be finely tuned. Highlighting makes it easy to determine which callouts belong to which dimensions.
UPDATE NAMED POSITIONS
Named Positions provide a quick way to move parts in an assembly to a known location. Now, when you need to change an existing Named Position, you can simply move the parts to their new location and press the update button on the Named Positions dialog.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
Every release of Onshape includes dozens of performance improvements, most of which are under-the-hood. Significant performance improvements that you'll see in this release include:
- Speed improvements in Hole features that contain many holes.
- Assemblies that contain multiple configurations of the same part now load much faster.
- The frequency of required Drawing updates has been significantly reduced.
API: GLTF EXPORT
The translate API endpoint has been improved to be able to export an Onshape element in GLTF format. This will make transferring graphics data between applications much easier.
ONSHAPE PROFESSIONAL IMPROVEMENTS
PREVENT RELEASE OF ASSEMBLIES WITH PENDING REFERENCE UPDATES
A new release condition has been added to Release Management that prevents an assembly from entering a release workflow if it has links to references that are out-of-date. If this condition is not set, an error will be shown in the Release Candidate dialog, but the assembly will be permitted to enter the workflow.
For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the Onshape Changelog.
Do you have a great idea for a new feature or improvement in Onshape? Please post your ideas in the Onshape Forums or vote on existing feature requests to help us prioritize development.