Pin drawing to released version or replace with released version

shawn_crocker

Typical thing that happens everyday

• New product is created and approved to mfg
• all drawings for the mfg floor are created inside the top level product document
• all drawings are released at the same time
• mfg floor enters the document and navigates back in the version history and starts extracting what released info they need
• mfg starts happening
• something is spotted in the drawing that is lacking like a missing dimension
• dimension is added and the one drawing is released with a rev bump
• a few months later product is mfg again
• the mfg floor now may need to navigate all over the place in the version history to get the properly released data as everything is now on different time lines

When this happens at the assembly level and only one part needs updating, the other parts can be replace with there released version to make sure they don't get a unnecessary rev bump.  I would like to be able to replace drawings in the workspace with the released version of that drawing.  When doing so, the drawing would be untouchable even in the workspace and would not show in progress or have in progress revision tags.  It would be a fully safe to use drawing.  If edits did need to be made, the drawing could be switched back to the active in progress state.  This would drastically reduce the amount of navigating through the version tree that is currently more necessary.  I'm actually considering moving unchanged drawings to a folder to sort of hide them away and importing .pdf's of the same drawings to get the same effect.  It would be nice for the functionality to exist as an ability rather then a workaround.

Or, maybe there are other ways around this?

lougallo

We are working on change detection that will know that parts in the workspace have not changed and no need to bump.  This swapping to released versions will happen automatically so you can avoid this busy work. But to the root issue, today we do not have a way to just add in a reference.  We are looking at other mechanisms to link tabs to a document or container that is controlled by you.  It has been something discussed like scoped sharing but ideally if there was a way to hit the + menu and point to any tab type (Part STudio, Assembly, Drawing) to a version, that would solve this.). We have a few things on the way to hopefully address some of these tedious tasks you have to do when modifying released datasets.

tim_hess427

This is good to hear that there are improvements on the way. 

Anything that makes it easier to find and use released content is good in my book. 

Right now, I fall back to creating a spreadsheet full of links to specific releases. This is prone to errors and can easily get out of date. I'd love to just have all this info in onshape so I don't have to leave the system and it's easy for people to find what they need (and avoid what could trip them up).

shawn_crocker

Oh. I was actually going to be creating an improvement request to be able to do just what @lougallo said. To be able to create a tab that is like a window looking into a specific version or release of any document. Would make it so easy to have all the drawings for a product present in one space without having to sin and create duplicates or something. If one was to create one of these link tabs of an assembly it would be great if the tab behaved like an assembly allowing the creation of display states and explode views that only exist in the link tab. What would make it even more incredible, is if you could make a drawing of the link tab but the properties from the underlying model are what get populated in the title block. Display states and explodes from both the link tab and the model would be available in the drawing.  This would make it truly usable in my books anyway. I sort of already do this by using a top level assembly as a container to create customized views of a specific product configuration. I always feel mildly uncomfortable though that this ends up creating one unnessesary part number. I was thinking about what @tim_hess427 had said about needing to be able to switch easily between releases from another topic. It really is just too awkward right now to perform the switching if you have released configurations living in multiple versions. In my case, if the component is not necessarily going to have drawings made of it I often just release again and attempt to label it as a Non-geometric revision. Which really begs to question why, to work efficiently, a system would force you to create revisions of things that actually have not changed. Go Lou! Make it awesome!

shawn_crocker

@tim_hess427 I just absorbed the gravity of your spreadsheet method. Using a link tab (the real one that allows displaying a Google sheet right in a document tab) I can see this being a very solid workaround to getting everything in one spot. I'm going to start doing that.

tim_hess427

@shawn_crocker - reading your interpretation of Lou's post made something click for me too. I think what he described could really be an interesting solution to some of these problems. I can envision having a "released documents" folder that is shared with the MFG team that only has those linked tabs pointing at released items. Then when a revision is bumped, that linked tab can be updated so that the MFG team doesn't see the obsolete item anymore. 

I'm also assuming that these linked tabs would be "read-only" in some way as well. Otherwise, what would prevent it from becoming a "forked" version of the original that someone could make unauthorized changes to? 

shawn_crocker

@tim_hess427 I agree with the linked tab being read only. I do think that the linked tab should be able to contain its own properties that can change how an assembly is being presented. Just like putting a released assembly inside another assembly. Exploded views can be created but they don't actually modify the released assembly. I feel like the linked tab should have an option that is specific to itself. The option could be toggled to allow what ever it is being referenced to not need updating.  Let's say the tab is looking at a released part number (part, assembly, or drawing). When the part number gets revised, the linked tab just automatically starts looking at the most updated revision. I can see people may want the tab not to do that which is why I'm think it should be an option. In my case, if I had to physically instruct an update, the benefits may get lost. I'm probably going to be using link tabs mainly for the production floor and I can't remember a time when we actually wanted to use an older revision. I want mfg to always have the most up to date stuff without me having to race around chasing tab updates.  What would actually be truly amazing is if the link tab could cross reference an assembly Bom that the user selects after creating the tab. If the part number the tab is following is listed in the Bom, the tab would maintain a link to whatever revision happens to be in the Bom. This would eliminate inconsistencies where a part number gets bumped from use in a different document, and a link tab somewhere else auto updates. Really there should be three options. Manual update of reference, Bom driven update of reference and unconditional automatic update of reference. In the case of drawings, I'm think the link tab would have to look at the revision contained in the Bom and then link to the drawing rev that contained the same revision of the Bom component. What would be great about this, is if a particular product containing a link tab to a drawing in a different document has a component that was revised and the product has not been updated yet. The fact that the drawing in the other document was updated, causes the link tab drawing to show obsolete. The cross referencing of the Bom that hasn't been updated forces the link tab to continue looking at the obsolete drawing. This would be an automatic alert to people on the floor that something isn't quite right or has not been addressed. Simply updating the products component reference causes the link tab to look at the new drawing revision.

shawn_crocker

Just rereading this one. Such a shame this sounds too complex to ever be a thing cause it would be amazing.