In my attempt to create the straight bevel gear feature, I found FeatureScript to be very simple and easy to program. It has an elegant way to create Input UI dialog for any feature automatically while programming the feature.

Once I was able to implement basic input UI dialog, from there it was mostly about calculations related to gear standards. This proved to be a little trickier than usual as it took me some time to get used to handling units alongside the values for each variable and calculation. This proved to be an inconvenience initially, as there are multiple calculations required to calculate involute points for the tooth as well as base circle radius. But after some time, I realized that it will help to tackle various issues like incorrect units which we face sometimes in traditional applications.

User and API documentation is good and I was able to find the required API's from the documentation and use it to orchestrate the creation of bevel gear feature. I think next time I would be able to create a new feature in lesser time.

I am new to FeatureScript and that might be one of the reasons why I faced some of the challenges mentioned here. I am listing out my experiences, but someone who is more familiar, might not find it difficult.

I was trying to use a circular pattern to the teeth and applying fillets on roots. CircularPattern function requires axis as one of the parameter, which I was not able to provide as a vector direction, nor by querying the coordinate system. I even tried creating a line and using it as edge, but it too did not work. I finally obtained a description in the forum where it was suggested to add a spline to the model and then use it as axis. Surprisingly, this too did not work. What worked in the end in conjunction with the spline as axis, was the “equalSpace” option that had to be provided as parameter of the function.

const axis = qCreatedBy(id + "Axis", EntityType.EDGE);
circularPattern(context, id + "gearTeeths", {
  "patternType" : PatternType.PART,
  "entities" : qCreatedBy(id + "loft2", EntityType.BODY),
  "axis" : axis,
  "angle" : 360 * degree,
  "instanceCount" : definition.gearTeeths,
  "equalSpace" : true
});

One more finding which needs to kept in mind is that, acos, atan and other trigonometric functions return results in radians and not degrees, though the documentation mentions otherwise.

I have worked on many CAD customization projects, added custom feature in many CAD products. Working on Onshape FeatureScript has given me an unique experience. Its powerful and yet so easy, that someone even without much experience can start creating custom features quickly. I loved everything about this programing language, the syntax, documentation, debugging. I think, it's one-of-its-kind when it comes to adding your own custom features to CAD product. My overall experience has been great and I am going to continue to explore and create more custom features within onshape using FeatureScript.