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Making a branch the "main"

Hopefully this is a rather basic question... As I've been learning Onshape I've been making "versions" as I hit major changes in my models. I'm treating this like a "save as". I get how it works, you can go back in your history and roll back to any version you want at any time.

I'm now at a point in some of my models where I actually want to "branch" and experiment on a design, and possibly make that a part of my main design (or abandon that branch because my idea was bad!)

In this particular model, apparently I created some branches:



"B3" is what I would consider to be the "current" model that I want to start branching from.

So the question: Is there a way that I can make B3 the main branch, essentially overwriting any previous branches? I tried to merge it back into the main, but the main seemed to "win".

As far as I'm concerned everything that's not "B3" in this model is old and out of date. Can anyone help me deal with this? Thanks!

Comments

  • Roy_MutalikRoy_Mutalik Member, Onshape Employees Posts: 33
    edited February 2019
    Hi Eric,

    This is a great question, that can trip up new and seasoned Onshape users alike, so thanks for asking! There are two pieces to answering it.

    First off, the reason you are seeing "Main" branch winning over the "B3" is that Merge is directional; the workspace you merge into will have priority. If you do need to see the sum of the changes between "B3" and "Main", you can try merging the other way (activate "B3", and select "Main" as the workspace to merge into it). 

    Aside from/in addition to that, do remember that the branch names are just names - you can change them however you need. "Main" is no more important or functional than any other branch you create (it's just named that because we have to name the first branch something). You can simply re-name "Main" to something else, and if you see fit then even rename "B3" to "Main". To do this, simply right-click the branch, and view its properties.

    As long as you understand which branch is which, that's all that really matters!
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    Another thing to understand is the "main" trunk branches and any versions cannot be deleted but branches can be permanently deleted. 

    For merge I always have to remind myself to go to the workspace I want to merge to then activate the merge by hovering over the branch node.  
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
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