Branching and Merging back to Main

S1mon

I'm pretty comfortable and happy with modeling in Onshape, but I'm just starting to get used to branching and merging. In one document, I made a branch ("B1"), and now it really should be the main branch. I've tried merging it into Main, but there are too many changes and it's a mess.

Do I end the "Main" branch somehow (how?)?

I was most recently working on the document in B1, but somehow in reopening the document, it pulled up Main. This was frightening because for a split second I thought I had lost work. Why did it decide to do this? How do I avoid that in the future?

I've been through the training info, but it's been a while so if this is all in there, forgive me...

Thanks,
-Simon

EvanReese

Hey Simon. Branching and Merging is a big topic. I made a video about it here, about how I've started thinking about it that people have told me they found useful. This way of thinking about it hasn't steered me wrong yet, but a word of warning; the video oversimplifies it just a bit and you can read the true true from Ilya in this thread. I also was informed today that drawings don't merge, they overwrite, so be careful there (I don't do enough collaborative drawings to have run into this). If you've already made a mess, this may not totally help you, but there is a hard-to-wrap-one's-head-around advanced workflow to remove an action from the list and keep everything else, which you can check out here. Onshape, if you're reading this, please make drawings merge like everything else. Merging is a main ingredient of your secret sauce.

EvanReese

Hey Simon. Branching and Merging is a big topic. I made a video about it here, about how I've started thinking about it that people have told me they found useful. This way of thinking about it hasn't steered me wrong yet, but a word of warning; the video oversimplifies it just a bit and you can read the true true from Ilya in this thread. I also was informed today that drawings don't merge, they overwrite, so be careful there (I don't do enough collaborative drawings to have run into this). If you've already made a mess, this may not totally help you, but there is a hard-to-wrap-one's-head-around advanced workflow to remove an action from the list and keep everything else, which you can check out here. Onshape, if you're reading this, please make drawings merge like everything else. Merging is a main ingredient of your secret sauce.

S1mon

@Evan_Reese
Thanks for reminding me about your video. I've watched all of them, but it's been a little while.

S1mon

@Evan_Reese
Ok. Now I get why I'm confused. Basically I want B1 to become the main branch. When I merge it into Main, it makes a mess that doesn't seem worthwhile to clean up. 

From your video I was reminded about where the Delete (branch) command shows up. I can delete my branch B1, but I can't delete Main. Is there something I'm missing, or is Main somehow sacred in Onshape?

EvanReese

The Main Workspace is indeed sacred and shan't be deleted henceforth and forevermore.

S1mon

It makes sense that you always need one active workspace, the same way you always have to have at least one tab in a document. I'm OK with that. But it seems a bit broken that you can't delete "Main". Not that it was your decision.

tim_hess427

Evan's video really helped me, but I still can't help but feel that the whole merging process still feels somewhat opaque and scary. The 'compare' tool helps but has let me down a couple of times because it doesn't show hidden parts from versions. 

eric_pesty

Not sure what you mean by "makes a mess" when you merge...
However if you want the main to become exactly like your B1, all you have to do is go to main and restore it to the version you created b1 from and then merge B1 in there. Main should now be exactly the same as B1 and you can delete the B1 workspace.

edward_petrillo

"all you have to do is go to main and restore it to the version you created b1 from and then merge B1 in there. Main should now be exactly the same as B1 and you can delete the B1 workspace."

@eric_pesty : Wow!  I  can recall a few white-knuckle merges that probably would have gone much better if I had heard this sooner.  Makes a lot of sense. Thanks!!