Onshape Features to Find, Filter, Edit the Product Data You Want

Ask anyone in product development what slows them down, and the answer is rarely design itself. Many times, the core issue is information. Which version is current? What tolerance applies? Who changed this, and why? Hours disappear into file hunts, broken references, and questions only one person can answer.

Onshape’s database-driven architecture ends that hunt. Every part, annotation, line of code, and component is structured data in one place, with no files to track down and no C:\ references to break. Finding it, filtering it, tracing it to its source, and editing it are all easy.

Five recent additions show how:

• AI (Artificial Intelligence)): FeatureScript MCP turns plain-language requests into reusable custom features.
• MBD (Model-Based Definition): Filters cut model-based definition down to exactly the annotations needed.
• IDE (Integrated Development Environment): Code compare, refactoring, and symbol navigation keep AI-written code in view in the integrated development environment.
• PCB (Printed-Circuit Board) Studio: Rigid-flex boards move between ECAD and MCAD with every bend and reference designator intact.
• UX (User Experience): Instance properties and center of mass put key details a click away.

AI-Powered Releases from Onshape Labs

Engineering knowledge usually lives in standards, spreadsheets, and the heads of experienced engineers. Onshape Labs, an opt-in group delivering new technology ahead of the regular release cycle, is moving it into the CAD system.

Recent AI releases include:

• FeatureScript MCP Server, which allows AI models to help develop custom features from plain-language requests
• FeatureScript Co-Complete that completes code blocks in the Feature Studio
• Descriptive image search finds “all the robot arms” based on visual cues instead of metadata or part name
• AI Quick Render turns what’s on screen into a rendered image in seconds
• SimReady Publisher creates assets for NVIDIA Isaac Sim

FeatureScript MCP shows the biggest shift. With Claude Code, four custom features came together without hand-editing a line of code: ASME-standard garden hose threads, an adjustable organic cage that wraps any 3D object (Rocky was the test subject), a four-fillet G2 corner blend, and a 124-part shell-and-tube heat exchanger with a table of temperatures, pressure drop, and Reynolds number. Each is a first-class feature that’s editable, suppressible, and traceable to its code. After creating the custom features, running it spends no AI tokens, because the AI work happens once.

MBD Filters and Annotation Tools

MBD is built into the core of Onshape, not added on. Extrudes, revolves, chamfers, and fillets can all be made tolerant, and custom features can contribute their own values. A roller chain sprocket that AI helped create from a catalog PDF even generated its own dimensions and annotations.

That’s a lot of information, so recent updates make it manageable:

• Filters show only GD&T, only distances, or both
• Default-tolerance filter can hide defaults to leave the critical dimensions machinists and inspectors must not miss
• Automatic isolation shows a part and its annotations together
• Datums on GD&T frames attach datums where tolerances are defined
• Drawings from MBD-enriched models carry annotated 3D intent into 2D

Sharing is still only one link. Anyone who opens it sees the saved state with the same annotations, same table, same view.

A Better IDE for FeatureScript

AI-built custom features run on FeatureScript, so the IDE – the Feature Studio – matters more than ever.

It now offers:

• Code compare to show different two versions and compare
• Search and replace is now far more powerful than before
• Refactor and rename changes a name once, then updates it everywhere
• Top-level navigation helps find keywords or symbols within the code

Code compare is the standout. When an agent writes the code, seeing exactly what changed keeps AI a collaborator, not a black box. Every version and change lives beside the design, one click from its origin.

Improved ECAD-to-MCAD with PCB Studio

PCB Studio ingests data from Altium or from files such as IDX, IDF, and BRD, then makes sense of keepouts, components, and reference designators.

Recent updates add rigid-flex support, plus:

• Zone awareness for rigid zones, flexible zones, and stiffeners are called out separately
• IDX 4.0 can now import and export, and be used with Cadence Allegro, for example
• Altium connector now handles flex-rigid boards
• Flattened and folded states are created automatically when synchronizing to Onshape
• Flex PCB feature allows flex zones in Onshape, using the same code as sheet metal bends and flanges

Start in Onshape by sizing a PCB from an enclosure’s inside walls with in-context modeling, add flex zones, place components, and export. ECAD colleagues return a populated board with reference designators. And because everything stays structured data, the round trip from MCAD to ECAD and back stays editable and traceable.

Instance Properties and Center of Mass

Assemblies often reuse the same sub-assembly many times, which makes it hard to know what copy is referred to in a drawing callout. Two recent updates make that kind of detail easier to find.

Assembly instance properties let each instance carry its own properties, including a reference designator, the same kind of label used on circuit boards. If a sub-assembly appears six times, each copy gets its own designator. The label shows in the Instances list and in drawings, so a callout points to one specific copy.

Center of mass on parts and drawings is the second update. Right-click a part, choose Show Center of Mass, and it stays on screen. Its location comes from the model’s geometry and material densities, so it moves when either changes. In a drawing, you can dimension from a point to the center of mass in each direction. It works for assemblies, too.

One Database Behind Every Feature

Whether it’s a custom feature, an annotation, a flex zone, or a center of mass, the information is data in one place: find it, filter it, trace it, edit it. New capabilities arrive every three weeks with nothing to install.

See it for yourself. Start a free Onshape trial and explore these features today.