View Navigation and Viewing Parts

The mouse wheel direction for zoom is configurable in user account preferences.

To zoom:

• Zoom to fit (shortcut: f, double-click scroll wheel) - Select this command or use the shortcut key to zoom the entire Part Studio, Assembly or Drawing into view.
• Zoom to window (shortcut: w) - Select this command, then click+drag a box around the area you want to zoom to in a Part Studio, Assembly or Drawing. The shortcut key toggles the feature on and off.
• Zoom to selection - Select this command to zoom to the selected entities.

Detect and view the interference between parts in a Part Studio or Assembly.

1. With more than one part in the Part Studio or Assembly, select Interference detection from the View tools menu:

   

2. Select two or more parts among which to view any interfering mass.

   

   The interference is shown in red, as above, and the parts involved are listed in the Interferences section of the dialog.

   Hover over the part name in the dialog to see cross-highlighting in the graphics area. When the focus is on the Interferences field in the dialog box, the graphics area zooms to fit the selected interference. Hover over the Interferences field in the dialog box and a bounding box appears in the graphics area, surrounding the interference in the model. In the dialog box, the length/width/height of the bounding box also appears on hover:

   

   You can use box select to select entities for interference detection: drag from top left to lower right to include only parts or bodies fully encompassed by the box. Drag from lower right to top left to include any parts or bodies touched by the selection box.

Tangent edges are edges formed between a curve and linear edge; for example, from fillets or smooth edges.

To select the visual treatment of tangent lines, select from the following three view modes:

• Visible - Tangent edges are shown as solid lines. This is the default.
• Phantom - Tangent edges are displayed as dashed lines; also known as Font in some systems.
• Hidden - Tangent edges are visually removed from view.

Three different tangent edge options, from left to right: Visible (default), Phantom, and Hidden.

Tangent edges are currently only available for newly created models in a Part Studio or Assembly, and only on the browser platform.

This menu has two options for evaluating curvature on faces and surfaces. Color map and Zebra stripes enable deeper investigation of curvature by applying a gradient of color (of your choosing) or the reflection of a striped room onto the face or surface. You can adjust the scale of the color gradient and choose from different types of color maps to gain the best visual representation to discern surface continuity and transition between edges.

Color map

Select the Color map option from the Curvature visualization menu to apply a color map to the faces and surfaces in the graphics area, using a color gradient to show curvature across a scale:

Options for visualizing curvature with a color map include:

• Setting colors for the map. Click the dropdown menu to select a color scheme that best suits your needs and visualization preferences:

  • Viridis - A scale of deep purple to light green

  • Blue -> Red - A scale of blue to red

  • Plasma - A scale of deep blue to light yellow

  • Rainbow - A scale of colors of the rainbow

• Selecting a graph for the map. Click the dropdown menu to select a specific graph:

  • Gaussian - Bases the color assignments on the product of the maximum and minimum radii at a given point. The curvature is displayed as the inverse of the radius.

  • Mean - Bases the color assignments on the mean of the maximum and minimum radii at a given point.

  • Max radius - Bases the color assignments on the maximum radius value at a given point.

  • Min radius - Bases the color assignments on the minimum radius value at a given point.

You can relocate the color map to any location in the graphics area to improve viewing of model and map. Hover over the graph until you see a cross-hair for mouse pointer. Click and drag the graph to a new location. For some locations, the graph reorients to a vertical position. The Colors and Curvature dropdowns remain at the top of the graphics area, regardless of where the graph is located.

Tips

When there is no curvature of the surface or face, Onshape doesn't assign any values to the color map scale since there are no calculations of radii. The color map is still visible and you can still select from maps and colors. No curvature color is applied if there are no values calculated. The model remains the same color before any curvature analysis tools were opened.

You can change the scale by clicking and dragging the end points of the scale closer to eachother. The points on the scale recalculate and the colors are refreshed on the faces and surfaces according to the new scale. You can also click on a value and type into the field to adjust the scale. Make sure to click the small refresh icon.

Zebra stripes

Select the Zebra stripes menu option to open the Zebra stripes dialog, which represents the reflection of a striped room on the current model, faces or surfaces. This allows you to see whether or not the curvature across edges is aligned and continuous:

• Stripe count - Number of curvature stripes displayed on each surface

• Flip stripes - Reverses the stripes.

• Show edges - Displays the edges between part faces (default). When unchecked, the part edges are hidden. Hiding these edges improves the curve visualization between part faces in certain situations.

When the curvature is aligned across an edge, the edge is smooth and the stripes line up, and then veer off across the edge:

When the curvature is continuous across an edge, the edge is smooth and there is no change in curvature across the edge. Stripes line up and do not veer off across the edge:

Examples:

No curvature visualization	Default curvature: 35 stripes
10 stripes	35 stripes; flipped

When you accept the Zebra stripes dialog (click the check mark), the dialog closes and the stripes remain. To turn the zebra stripes off, select Zebra stripes from the Curvature visualization menu again and click the X in the dialog. (Selecting Color map from the Curvature visualization menu also turns off the zebra stripes.)

Use Draft analysis to find faces in the model that do not meet a specified minimum amount of draft, discover undercut regions, and see the potential parting line locations for selected geometries.

Select Draft analysis from the View tools menu:

1. In the dialog, indicate the Mold split direction by selecting a plane, face, or edge.

   

2. Specify the minimum draft angle.
3. Select the part or parts to check.
4. Optionally turn off the indication of red undercut faces (Show undercut regions check box).

Notice the draft analysis flyout in the bottom right corner of the window.

• Faces in blue indicate they meet the specified minimum angle for the draft.
• Faces in yellow indicate they are too steep (i.e. less than the minimum specified draft).
• Faces in red indicate undercut faces.

You can view the exact angle of individual drafts by moving the cursor over the model:

As with other visualization modes, draft analysis remains active until you select something else. While it is active, you are able to edit the part to correct the drafts and see the immediate result of your actions. You are also able to use section views to view places on the model that might otherwise be difficult to see.

To change the details of the draft analysis, click Edit draft analysis in the lower right corner:

Draft analysis works automatically in both directions. Onshape displays acceptable draft in different colors to indicate direction: light blue for side one (positive direction) and dark blue for side two (negative direction). The manipulator arrow points to side one and you can flip it using the directional arrow in the dialog, as shown above next to the Mold split direction field.

The image above shows the draft angle after the directional arrow was clicked to flip the direction of the analysis: the light blue shows the positive direction and the angle is shown as a positive angle. By contrast, the image preceding, the dark blue shows the negative direction and the angle is shown as a negative angle.

Set the level of transparency of a part through the Part context menu; right-click on a part name in the Parts list and select Appearance editor. See Customizing Parts, Faces, and Features: Appearance for more information.

Section view allows for the selection of one or many planes, mate connectors, cylindrical faces, conical faces, or planar faces to use for sectioning. Section view can be turned on through the view cube, or by selecting Section view in the context menu.

Once the manipulator is visible, it can be moved via the ball (open circle at its center) and snapped to any inference point on the part, surface, or assembly. Sectioned items are viewable in both Part Studios and Assemblies:

1. Select one or many planes, mate connectors, cylindrical faces, conical faces, or planar faces on the part or surface.
2. Expand the menu on the View Tools cube and select Section view (shown below). Alternatively, right-click on a part in the Part Studio or an assembly in an Assembly tab, and select Section view from the context menu.

   

You can alternatively select the Turn section view on command before making any selections.

3. The part/surface is sectioned at the point chosen in step 1 above (cylindrical face, conical face, planar face, plane, or mate connector). A manipulator appears at the last location selected and a dialog opens listing selections:

   

Intersecting parts, if they exist, are rendered in red.

4. Click and drag the open circle (ball) of the manipulator to position it. Notice you can snap it to any inference point on the part or assembly, including the centroids of cylinders (the white marks below indicate inference points):

   

   

5. Use the manipulator to change the depth and/or angle of the section.
   1. Use the arrow to change the depth, dragging in one direction or another. Click the manipulator to flip the direction of the view.
   2. Use the angle indicators to drag at an angle.
   3. Use the numeric field to type the depth or angle of the view.

    

   

6. To select a different sectioning plane while the dialog box remains open, simply click on the desired location for this new sectioning plane, and a new manipulator and section plane appears.

   

7. To view the section normal to the section view plane, use shortcut key n or right-click and select View normal to from the context menu.
8. To exclude a part or parts (surface or surfaces) from being sectioned, activate the Items to exclude field then make your selections in the graphics area:

   

9. To include a part or parts (surface or surfaces) in the section, select the Include tab, then select the items to include in the graphics area:

   

10. It is possible to move the model while in section view. Click out of the dialog box to close it, then manipulate the model as desired.
11. If Section view is not turned off and the dialog box is closed, open the dialog again by double-clicking on the section plane. Alternatively, click the View cube menu or right-click on the part or assembly to access the context menu, and select Edit section view.
12. Select Turn section view off from the View tools cube menu or context menu when finished.

You can use Section view and then save the view as a Named View.

Keyboard shortcuts for view

• Front view = Shift 1
• Back view = Shift 2
• Left view = Shift 3
• Right view = Shift 4
• Top view = Shift 5
• Bottom view = Shift 6
• Isometric view = Shift 7
• Section view = Shift X
• Named view = Shift V

Use Zoom to selection to change the view to a close-up of the selected entities.

Make a selection in the graphics area:

Expand the View menu and select Zoom to selection:

Onshape displays holes and disconnects in a model, including laminar edges of surfaces, that may be in need of repair when you select Highlight boundary edges. This feature is especially helpful when importing parts that require repairing surfaces.

Select Highlight boundary edges in the View tools menu. Edges that may require repair are highlighted in solid red lines when the edges are visible and dashed red lines when the edges are hidden:

This tool is available only in Part Studios. For more information, see Repairing Imported Models.

shift+r

Toggle to select/deselect the highest available quality tessellation view for the currently active Part Studio or Assembly. Be aware that this may result in a slight degradation of performance. When you turn this option on, the blue notifications are displayed as shown below:

For more information on how this view mode may affect performance, see High quality mode.

3D Rotate Lock, when active, locks the user's ability to 3D rotate the graphics area. This is particularly useful when attempting to select and drag an entity.

It is located directly above the View Cube in both Part Studios and Assemblies.

To activate the 3D Rotate Lock, tap the button. To deactivate, tap the button again or commit a feature.

3D Rotate Lock activates by default in certain situations:

• Part Studio - If a sketch is open and an entity is selected, the 3D Rotate Lock turns on by default. This allows for the selection to be dragged without the view rotating. Unlock by tapping the button.
• Assembly - If an instance, mate connector, or entity is selected, the 3D Rotate Lock turns on by default. This allows for the selection to be dragged without the view rotating. Unlock by tapping the button.

The View cube is located in the upper right corner of the graphics area. When selected, a list of different viewing options appears. Select one to change the view of your graphics area or the view settings of your part(s). This is an easy and quick way to get a well-oriented view of your part(s) without having to 2D/3D rotate or zoom.