One of the most invaluable aspects of Onshape’s cloud-based product development platform is that the CAD, collaboration and data management features keep incrementally improving every three weeks. We know that many of you look forward to our regular “What’s New” updates, but have you ever wondered how new features and functionality are developed or what may be coming six months from now, a year from now, and beyond?

At Onshape’s first-ever Virtual User Conference on March 11, 2020, there will be a candid Q&A session with leaders from Onshape’s R&D team that will reveal unannounced upcoming features from the people building them. We rarely talk about what’s next, so this will be a special opportunity for Onshape insiders. And yes, there will be some demos!

If you missed Onshape founder Jon Hirschtick’s thoughts on the Onshape Live ‘21 conference, you can read his blog here.

So… we’d be delighted for you to join us. Register today!  

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming… Here's what's new in the latest release:

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

NEW DOCUMENT PANEL

Versions and History, Create Version, Comments, Where Used (currently only Enterprise) and Tab manager icons are now grouped together on the left side of the screen in the new Document Panel. Clicking one of these icons opens the Document Panel to the left of the Feature/Instance list so the screen area is no longer obscured by individual dialog boxes. The Document Panel is expandable so the Version graph is now easier to read and access, and the icon panel allows space for future planned improvements.


ADD PREFIX/SUFFIX TO EXPORT FILENAME

To simplify the handling of exported files, it is now possible to automatically prefix or suffix additional information to the file names of exported data.


TAB SELECTION FOR "MOVE TO DOCUMENT"

If you want to move a tab to another Document, you now have the choice of whether the tabs that contain references to the selected tab are also moved or remain in the current Document.


ABILITY TO REMOVE TOP-LEVEL ITEMS FROM THE RELEASE MANAGEMENT DIALOG

If you are the creator of a list of release candidates, it is now possible to remove individual top-level items from the list without rejecting the entire release package.


CONFIGURE ASSEMBLY NAME IN CONFIGURED ASSEMBLY PROPERTIES

You can now also directly insert and edit the property field "Name" in the Configured Assembly Properties table.

DRAWING IMPROVEMENTS

DUPLICATE SHEET IN SAME DRAWING TAB

Sometimes it is helpful to duplicate an entire drawing sheet with all dimensions, views and sections in order to reuse already created 2D information in another context. For this purpose, it is now possible to duplicate a drawing sheet in the same tab.

IMPROVEMENT TO THE DIAMETER DIMENSION TOOL

The Diameter Dimension tool has been improved so that projected diameter surfaces can now be dimensioned on the fly with the diameter symbol.


MORE WELD SYMBOLS COVER 2ND FILLET OPTION

The “2nd Fillet option” is now available for more weld symbols including the bead joint.

ENTERPRISE IMPROVEMENTS

DEFAULT ENTERPRISE STARTUP PAGE

Enterprise admins now have the option to set the default startup page after sign-in for all members.

IOS IMPROVEMENTS

FINGER GESTURE CONTROLS TOOLTIP

If you are using the Onshape App on your IOS device for the very first time, you will now be guided through a finger gesture tooltip menu that will explain the basic operations. You can find the tooltips at any time under the Help menu -> "Review gesture controls".

LEARNING CENTER IMPROVEMENTS

NEW SELF-PACED COURSE: ASSEMBLY CONFIGURATIONS

A new course, Assembly Configurations, has been added to the Onshape Learning Center to explain how to create and manage Assembly Configurations. This course is available to Standard, Professional, Enterprise and Educational subscriptions.

Please take a moment to try out these new features and improvements and leave your comments below. For a detailed list of all the changes in this update, please see the changelog.

Remember: The updates listed here are now live for all users when creating new Documents, and over the next few days, these features will also be available in Documents created before the date of this update.