Exporting and Importing with history intact

kartik_1

Hello,

Is there any way make sure that when exporting and importing a part the operation history is intact? e.g. If I import a part into Onshape the operation history of that part also comes along?

Thanks,

Kartik

traveler_hauptman

The short answer is no. Onshape does not read the history of any parts that in imports.

That said, Onshapes initial set of direct editing tools allow you to work with models that lack history very effectively. This capability will improve.

jakeramsley

Just for clarity, are you looking to have a format that you can import and get the full feature lists, assemblies with mates, etc. or are you looking to include the entire document history as well?  In both cases we don't currently allow, but the term history is a bit muddied and I want a better understanding of what you'd hope a format would be.

juan_aviles

I understand other file formats will lose their history when imported, but is there a plan to allow an export of an Onshape model from one document into another and keep the history?  If it's an Onshape part, I don't see why this is not possible.

jakeramsley

@juan_aviles,

Can you expand on what you mean by "history"?  Are you hoping for a format that has all of the branches/versions and workspace history or are you interested in a system that still has the parametric design?

viru

@jakeramsley , Can you suggest me any method or alternative to make copy of a document which should include all workspace/ branches/version in one document.

Thanks you!

With warm regards,
Viru

raj_Onshape

@viru  At present we do not have a capability to make a copy of a document with all its workspaces.

viru

@ptrajkumar, Is any chances for this capability in near future. This capability will provide tremendous value addition to Onshape. Thank u .

raj_Onshape

@viru Please file a request at improvement-requests. A better approach would some kind of purge history functionality which would collapse all history other that your branches and published versions

philip_thomas

juan_aviles said:

I understand other file formats will lose their history when imported, but is there a plan to allow an export of an Onshape model from one document into another and keep the history?  If it's an Onshape part, I don't see why this is not possible.

Juan - you can RMB over any part studio tab and 'copy to clipboard'. Then, in the target document, click on the '+' in the bottom left hand corner and select 'Paste Tab' - Boom! Same part studio with parts and history. I hope that is what you were looking for.

_Ðave_

@ptrajkumar If I wish to make an exact copy of a document to share so that the original is not contaminated. Could you please elaborate on how purging/deleting all the history is the same as making a copy of a document with all of its history, branches and versions intact.

3dcad

@jakeramsley  is right, this thread is difficult to understand. Please refer to either Feature history (history tree which has your sketches, extrusions and so) or Workspace history (clock icon, contains all steps made in workspace)

_Ðave_

I can't speak for all others but I would define an exact copy of a document as containing all of the above plus also additional workspaces/branches and all within them.

shashank_aarya

@kartik_1 Whenever you export any file there will not be any history since it becomes non parametric with no features.

juan_aviles

philip_thomas said:

juan_aviles said:

I understand other file formats will lose their history when imported, but is there a plan to allow an export of an Onshape model from one document into another and keep the history?  If it's an Onshape part, I don't see why this is not possible.

Juan - you can RMB over any part studio tab and 'copy to clipboard'. Then, in the target document, click on the '+' in the bottom left hand corner and select 'Paste Tab' - Boom! Same part studio with parts and history. I hope that is what you were looking for.

This is a great tip and one I didn't know about!  However, I was talking about bringing a part from one part studio, into another part studio within the same document.  I know about derived, but that's not what I mean either.

philip_thomas

@juan_aviles  Sorry - i might have missed something.
Today you can;

Copy/paste part studios from one document to another.
Duplicate a part studio 
Derive a part or sketch from one part studio to another

With that said, does derive not fill your request "bringing a part from one part studio, into another part studio within the same document" ?

juan_aviles

philip_thomas said:

@juan_aviles  

With that said, does derive not fill your request "bringing a part from one part studio, into another part studio within the same document" ?

Not really.  The problem I have with derive is once a part is derived into another part studio, you can't move or rotate it.  For example, I had a part studio today with 1 part in it.  I derived another part into that first part studio from a second part studio, but the program kept trying to insert it in a bad position that would have been in the way for modeling.  Derive is a neat feature, but if I can't do anything with the part, I don't really understand what it's good for.  

philip_thomas

juan_aviles said:

philip_thomas said:

@juan_aviles  

With that said, does derive not fill your request "bringing a part from one part studio, into another part studio within the same document" ?

Not really.  The problem I have with derive is once a part is derived into another part studio, you can't move or rotate it.  For example, I had a part studio today with 1 part in it.  I derived another part into that first part studio from a second part studio, but the program kept trying to insert it in a bad position that would have been in the way for modeling.  Derive is a neat feature, but if I can't do anything with the part, I don't really understand what it's good for.  

Juan - You absolutely can move a derived part in a part studio. Now remember, this is not an assembly so there is not quite the same extensive toolset but the 'transform' tool will absolutely enable you to position a derived part so that you can reference it in your part studio.

https://cad.onshape.com/help/#transform.htm?Highlight=transform

andrew_troup

@philip_thomas
That's a solution only in those cases where the derived part's desired location can be prescribed dimensionally, is it not?

In practice, inserted parts often need to "follow" the movement of related parts, in other words, their position needs to be specified in a way which is live rather than dead.

I hope you will extract another rabbit from the capacious Onshape hat, and show me I have this wrong!

imagineered

@kartik_1 originally asked about exporting the files with history attached.
I believe he was referring to the possibility of exporting & importing native OnShape files so the feature tree is in tact.
This is an important point & one where other packages have an advantage over OnShape.
#1, there are legal requirements in some countries for companies to keep critical records & data backed up for 7 Years.  In some circumstances CAD data will fall into this requirement.
#2 - if for example, you let a subscription lapse for a year or two ( & it can happen - it happens with other packages). When you decide to opt back in again how can you access your work from the previous years? Or has that all gone into cyberspace?
I know the suggestion will be "export as Parasolid or STEP".
A few issues there - 
These are dumb solids & all constraints & intelligence are gone. 
Modification of these is not always so easy.
Even SE Synchronous Technology has occasional issues with these.
As I am aware there is still an issue with the STEP translator......hopefully this will be fixed soon :-) 

philip_thomas

@andrew_troup Today the only mechanisms that exist are the ones that you are describing (dimensional) and do provide a level of utility that wasn't there before derive part. That said, Scott and I recently wrote a story that would put something nice in the hat to cover this exact scenario

philip_thomas

@imagineered - for any account whether dormant or simply downgraded from Professional and not touched in 'a long period of time', Onshape has no plans to delete or in any way compromise the accessibility of that data. As it stands today, an account that has not been touched in 7 years would still be accessible including all data without having to pay a penny. If we ever planned to do anything other than this, we would of course alert all users and make that data available for download.

imagineered

So @philip_thomas , there are "no plans", but is this guaranteed? 
What are the backups like & how often at OnShape?
What security is utilised? Hopefully a little better than icloud   

philip_thomas

@imagineered - Yes, i cannot say 'never', but i did point out that in the event that any aspect of our service would change, that all users would be notified in advance and that provisions to enable the download of all user data would be made. I don't think that Onshape nor any other company is in a position to make guarantees regarding the future. With regard to backup, these are made regularly and securely by our cloud provider (AWS) and archived in an encrypted fashion making them useless to any third party. And on the subject of security - yes, Onshape is very secure. Here is a quick read to get you going - https://www.onshape.com/security and typing 'security' into the search box on the website yields a number of additional articles, presenations and live interviews. A better question would be - 'Is it reasonable to assume that storing data with an archival requirement of 7 years on the Onshape servers would meet those requirements?' - to which i would say, yes.

imagineered

@philip_thomas - sorry, with regard to the guarantee, I wouldn't expect it never to change, but the guarantee I would be interested in is that the data will be there when I come back (not withstanding policy change in the mean time). 

philip_thomas

@imagineered - yes, the data will be there

juan_aviles

philip_thomas said:

juan_aviles said:

philip_thomas said:

@juan_aviles  

With that said, does derive not fill your request "bringing a part from one part studio, into another part studio within the same document" ?

Not really.  The problem I have with derive is once a part is derived into another part studio, you can't move or rotate it.  For example, I had a part studio today with 1 part in it.  I derived another part into that first part studio from a second part studio, but the program kept trying to insert it in a bad position that would have been in the way for modeling.  Derive is a neat feature, but if I can't do anything with the part, I don't really understand what it's good for.  

Juan - You absolutely can move a derived part in a part studio. Now remember, this is not an assembly so there is not quite the same extensive toolset but the 'transform' tool will absolutely enable you to position a derived part so that you can reference it in your part studio.

https://cad.onshape.com/help/#transform.htm?Highlight=transform

I was so used to the transform widget automatically showing up in assemblies when I selected an object, that I never thought to look in the toolbar for it in part studios.  Thanks Phillip, I once again stand corrected.  This does make things much easier for me.

shashank_aarya

imagineered said:

@kartik_1 originally asked about exporting the files with history attached.
I believe he was referring to the possibility of exporting & importing native OnShape files so the feature tree is in tact.
This is an important point & one where other packages have an advantage over OnShape.
#1, there are legal requirements in some countries for companies to keep critical records & data backed up for 7 Years.  In some circumstances CAD data will fall into this requirement.
#2 - if for example, you let a subscription lapse for a year or two ( & it can happen - it happens with other packages). When you decide to opt back in again how can you access your work from the previous years? Or has that all gone into cyberspace?
I know the suggestion will be "export as Parasolid or STEP".
A few issues there - 
These are dumb solids & all constraints & intelligence are gone. 
Modification of these is not always so easy.
Even SE Synchronous Technology has occasional issues with these.
As I am aware there is still an issue with the STEP translator......hopefully this will be fixed soon :-) 

Thanks for elaborating in detail. Initially I could not understand this topic. I think there are some software tools available to recognize the features of dumb solids but I am not sure if they can be integrated in CAD tools and features came in native CAD format. But definitely this can be one of the improvement if Onshape could integrate any feature recognition tool inside it.

dominic_germana

Hello, I just want to chime in that I also wish it was possible to download Onshape native files, and then re-upload them later with their parametric design information intact.  Thanks!

pete_yodis

@dominic_germana What would you do with those downloaded native files?  I think you would find, anyway, that there are not native "files".  With Onshape you are designing in a database.  Huge advantages, but does not fit your thinking of being file based.

imagineered

Downloading of native Onshape files would only ever be for backup purposes.  The Native Onshape files would never be able to be read anywhere else. Onshape are now telling me however, that if you let your plan lapse & then sign up later, your files would still be there untouched.
Knowing this, it would not be necessary to download your native files.
Exporting of Parasolid and STEP is still a critical ability.
I have experienced a translation problem with the STEP translator & the guys are working on it. They'll get there.

Something more of an issue is other translators such as SAT & STL.

If you have to send to a tool maker that uses, Autocad, you need to export SAT (mind you, I personally wouldn't have a lot of faith in anyone who relies on Autocad).
If you want to have 3D printing done, you need to translate to STL.