Release Management - How to release a drawing without the part revision

brucebartlett

How do we release a drawing without pushing the part on the drawing to a new revision?

I released all the parts via releasing the top assembly drawing first.

brucebartlett

It appears that if I just collapse the tree to make the part disappear no rev is pushed. 

brucebartlett

I went to the effort to collapse the subassemblies so subpart revs were not pushed and selected the subparts and drawings individually on the same release but somehow the Boss 502-405 which is used across 3 assemblies is now at Rev C even though I only selected on the release of the first assembly it was used in. I am not enjoying this whole release management experience.   

mthiesmeyer

Hi @brucebartlett,

This does not seem correct, please file a support ticket.

Best,

Mike

brucebartlett

mthiesmeyer said:

Hi @brucebartlett,

This does not seem correct, please file a support ticket.

Best,

Mike

Yes I did log a ticket and this is the current operation, hopefully, it can be improved soon. My only work workaround atm would be to set the part on the drawing or possibly in the assembly to a released version before releasing its parent. 

robert_morris

@brucebartlett,
Is that part in the same document as the assemblies it's used in?
One thing I don't like about the current implementation of the release management is that parts are automatically revision bumped when releasing an assembly in the same document.

A part shouldn't be revision bumped by an assembly if it hasn't actually changed.

brucebartlett

robert_morris said:

@brucebartlett,
Is that part in the same document as the assemblies it's used in?
One thing I don't like about the current implementation of the release management is that parts are automatically revision bumped when releasing an assembly in the same document.

A part shouldn't be revision bumped by an assembly if it hasn't actually changed.  

Exactly my issue, this not the way it should work in my opinion, I'd almost go as far as say it is a  bug. Sounds like improvements are being worked on here. At the moment a lot of messing about to get drawings released without bumping revision on subparts. 

tim_hess427

@brucebartlett - I think I may have stumbled upon some addition information relevant to this issue. I was having the same problem, where releasing a drawing was automatically bumping the revision of the linked part. However, when I specifically linked the drawing to an already released version of the part (rather than the part from the workspace) I was able to release the drawing without an increase in the part revision. Does this sound like what was happening for you?

I haven't tried it, yet, but functionality with assemblies could be the same. If the assembly is referencing the current workspace version of the part, all revisions are bumped up together. 

So, it seems there's two paths (recommendations?) that could work for different workflows:

1. If you want part revisions and drawing revisions to always be the same, then you can do all your releases on the drawing and your parts will follow along. 
2. If, however, you don't necessarily keep your part and drawing revisions the same, then its probably best to make linking to a fixed part version standard practice when creating drawings so that you can revision them independently.  

michael_bromley

tim_hess427 said:

@brucebartlett - I think I may have stumbled upon some addition information relevant to this issue. I was having the same problem, where releasing a drawing was automatically bumping the revision of the linked part. However, when I specifically linked the drawing to an already released version of the part (rather than the part from the workspace) I was able to release the drawing without an increase in the part revision. Does this sound like what was happening for you?

I haven't tried it, yet, but functionality with assemblies could be the same. If the assembly is referencing the current workspace version of the part, all revisions are bumped up together. 

So, it seems there's two paths (recommendations?) that could work for different workflows:

1. If you want part revisions and drawing revisions to always be the same, then you can do all your releases on the drawing and your parts will follow along. 
2. If, however, you don't necessarily keep your part and drawing revisions the same, then its probably best to make linking to a fixed part version standard practice when creating drawings so that you can revision them independently.  

That is correct.  If you are referencing the most current version of the part (version in main) even if it has not changed from a prior release OnShape will want to revision it.  Essentially the releases are a snapshot in time and do not flow through like a conventional PDM vault system.  In drawings and assemblies you need to insert the part at the released state or update the version to the released state.

tim_hess427

michael_bromley said:

tim_hess427 said:

@brucebartlett - I think I may have stumbled upon some addition information relevant to this issue. I was having the same problem, where releasing a drawing was automatically bumping the revision of the linked part. However, when I specifically linked the drawing to an already released version of the part (rather than the part from the workspace) I was able to release the drawing without an increase in the part revision. Does this sound like what was happening for you?

I haven't tried it, yet, but functionality with assemblies could be the same. If the assembly is referencing the current workspace version of the part, all revisions are bumped up together. 

So, it seems there's two paths (recommendations?) that could work for different workflows:

1. If you want part revisions and drawing revisions to always be the same, then you can do all your releases on the drawing and your parts will follow along. 
2. If, however, you don't necessarily keep your part and drawing revisions the same, then its probably best to make linking to a fixed part version standard practice when creating drawings so that you can revision them independently.  

That is correct.  If you are referencing the most current version of the part (version in main) even if it has not changed from a prior release OnShape will want to revision it.  Essentially the releases are a snapshot in time and do not flow through like a conventional PDM vault system.  In drawings and assemblies you need to insert the part at the released state or update the version to the released state.

Coming into Onshape, I thought I understand the "snapshot in time" concept, at least as it applied to versions. I think my confusion stemmed from a misunderstanding of the scope of those snapshots. If I'm specifically selecting a drawing for release, I'm intending to take a snapshot of that drawing. There isn't anything in the process that made me stop and realize that the subject of my snapshot is in a dynamic (work-in-progress) state. I think there may be some workflow/UI tweaks that could make this more apparent. 

Stefan_DMS

Is there any way to change which revision the part is referenced from after the drawing has been made? 
If not, does this mean that all released drawings have to be created after the release has been submitted?

This brings up the issue of the chicken/egg, we use a drawing as a double check on the design file, but that can't be used as a check if it has to be created after the release is made. released parts can't be modified...

Hopefully, there is a way around it.

tim_hess427

Stefan_DMS said:

Is there any way to change which revision the part is referenced from after the drawing has been made? 
If not, does this mean that all released drawings have to be created after the release has been submitted?

This brings up the issue of the chicken/egg, we use a drawing as a double check on the design file, but that can't be used as a check if it has to be created after the release is made. released parts can't be modified...

Hopefully, there is a way around it.

For your first question: I haven't been able to find a way to update the part revision that is referenced in the drawing (other than deleting and re-drawing everything).

For you second question: I think this means that you need to release drawings and parts together to keep them in sync, which I have mixed feelings about. I think I'd probably screw this up someone and get off track. 

I've got more questions now, too: What if parts and drawings are in different documents? What if the same part is on multiple drawings? Should I be trying to keep my drawing and part revisions in sync? 

tim_hess427

@Stefan_DMS

Edit for my previous comment: Turns out it is possible to update a linked document in a drawing. You have to right-click on the TAB, and select "update linked document" from there.

I feel better now. 

brucebartlett

@stefan_DMS @tim_hess427 Yes, references can be changed by RMB clicking on the drawing tab.  If you have multiple parts on the drawing there is also a way to granularly choose the parts and versions. However I can't seem to work out how to control the flat patterns, they seem to only come in at the workspace level. 


On this drawing, I have dropped some extra parts in and you can see how to control them, (it would be nice however to see the part thumbnail image rather the total studio thumbnail). I have also made changes to the bracket in the main workspace which seems to always blow through onto the flat pattern which is confusing and dangerous, I would have thought the flat pattern would follow its parents version. 

Stefan_DMS

Found a way to change the version referenced in the part. Left click on the tab. you can change from the workspace to the version/release revision. 
Note: watermarks are set from the drawing release, not the part release.