Locking a released file

Dennis_Varkevisser

Dear all,

I have released a part in Onshape, and after release it is possible to make changes to this part without any warnings. I have experience working with Windchill and 3DX at two companies and in both situations the PLM/CAD systems were configured that user could not edit released files. When you select a feature and try to change a dimension you get warnings. At this stage you need to create a new revision that would get the status "in work" and you are able to make changes. 

Is it possible to configure Onshape to do the same? 

tim_hess427

This is definitely one the things that has come up several times around here and can take some trial and error to figure out. There's a lot of different options for organizing things so it can be tricky to find the best approach. However, generally, there are some guidelines that have been advised by Onshape and other users (although there can definitely be exceptions based on your own project and goals):

• Generally keep one part/assembly per document. This makes the history and releases easier understand and navigate. You can then create a drawing for that part in the same document as the model. The main exception to this is if there are more than one parts that have geometry that is highly dependent on each other, in which case it makes sense to create multiple parts in one part studio. Examples might be a linkage with several parts all driven by one layout sketch or complex parts that need to fit together (I've got two plastic parts that are modeled as one body and then split to create two separate parts - these are in the same part studio). 
  
• I generally tend to release the part and drawing at the same time. This way, the drawing can always refer to the latest model in the workspace, but your released part and model will in sync. Same goes for assemblies and assembly drawings. 

It sounds like you were making your way towards this approach, anyway, and it sounds like you're on the right track.

One other thing to consider is multiple approaches. During an early, heavy "design" phase of a project, you may want all of your parts/assemblies/drawings in one document for a clear project overview, then when you're ready to release things, clean things up and move all of your parts/assemblies into separate documents to release them and start with clean history trees. 

tim_hess427

All releases (and versions) are read-only. The thing that trips people up is that onshape automatically creates a new workspace for editing (whereas that would be a manual thing in windchill). No matter what you do in the workspace, previously created versions and released items will always be available with permanent links. 

I admit its a little weird and seems to be a "design work" focused default arrangement, whereas I can see in many situations you want users to have a "retrieve released data" default arrangement. 

I'm hoping that onshape will work on something, even if its something like a "view only" interface, or a way to automatically open the latest version/revision of a document rather than the most recent workspace. 

Dennis_Varkevisser

Hello Tim, 

Thanks for your reply. I am still struggeling with my way of working within Onshape. When I was just moddeling I made around 10 parts and drawings within one Document. This worked quite okay. I had for instance all parts of an subassembly and the subassembly + drawings in one document which gave a nice overview. But once I start to use releases and revisions this Document approach start to show some disadvantages: If I release one drawing and part and want to show the correct drawing so I can send it to a supplier I need to do the following:
- Point the drawing to the released part using "change to version"
- Now my drawing is still showing a "in progress" watermark. because the drawing itself is the Main version and not the release version.
- Now I have to select to show the released document. this status is for the complete document so for all parts and drawings included.
- If I want to work on another drawing that has a different status I need to change the status again also showing the watermarks on all drawings. 

To overcome the above workflow I now only make 1 component documents just containing 1 part and its drawing. 
What is your approach on this?

Best regards,
Dennis Varkevisser

tim_hess427

This is definitely one the things that has come up several times around here and can take some trial and error to figure out. There's a lot of different options for organizing things so it can be tricky to find the best approach. However, generally, there are some guidelines that have been advised by Onshape and other users (although there can definitely be exceptions based on your own project and goals):

• Generally keep one part/assembly per document. This makes the history and releases easier understand and navigate. You can then create a drawing for that part in the same document as the model. The main exception to this is if there are more than one parts that have geometry that is highly dependent on each other, in which case it makes sense to create multiple parts in one part studio. Examples might be a linkage with several parts all driven by one layout sketch or complex parts that need to fit together (I've got two plastic parts that are modeled as one body and then split to create two separate parts - these are in the same part studio). 
  
• I generally tend to release the part and drawing at the same time. This way, the drawing can always refer to the latest model in the workspace, but your released part and model will in sync. Same goes for assemblies and assembly drawings. 

It sounds like you were making your way towards this approach, anyway, and it sounds like you're on the right track.

One other thing to consider is multiple approaches. During an early, heavy "design" phase of a project, you may want all of your parts/assemblies/drawings in one document for a clear project overview, then when you're ready to release things, clean things up and move all of your parts/assemblies into separate documents to release them and start with clean history trees. 

Dennis_Varkevisser

Thanks for these tips Tim!

shawn_crocker

I don't let myself get too worked up over where and how. Properly tracking changes is the job of the document control system not the user in my mind. Onshape has certainly done a magnificent job of nailing that down. What some people may forget or be unaware of is you can pin down references. A typical thing I do, is create all the parts for an assembly in one part studio which ends up in its own document. I then create an assembly linking to all those parts. Now, what used to bother me, was if I changed the part studio but only one part of in the studio was affected, the assembly should want to update all the parts to the newer version. If the assembly was released, many parts would have there rev bumped redundantly. What I do now is pin the assemblies references and selectively update just the part I know changed. When releasing now only the one parts rev gets bumped. One rule I usually do follow for configured product models is having only one tab per document associated with the top level assembly and generally keep all drawings out of those documents. Because its configured, I'm wanting to be able to keep everything drivable by the top assembly. If other tabs were in the same document, I would have to start replacing components the are not changing with releases which would break the documents configurability.