Releasing all drawings within a document

Dennis_Varkevisser

Dear all, 

I am trying to release all drawings in a document in one release action. But this is not possible. I get an error message. I have to release all drawings one-by-one. This brings the dis-advantage that when I export the release drawing to pdf, I have to select the correct release state which is different for each drawing. Am I doing something wrong or overlooking possibilities? Please let me know. I want to avoid making a separate document to each drawing because this gives disadvantages when updating assemblies...

Best regards,
Dennis Varkevisser

John_vd_Werff

I had a similar issue (see here).
I think it might be related to depencies between parts. In general it is possible to release multiple drawings within a document at once. But I got error messages in these release cases:
- mirror parts together
- parts together with subassemblies with the same parts

In  both cases there are dependencies between the different tabs in the document.
A part must be released befor the subassembly with that part can be released?

romeograham

@Dennis_Varkevisser can you show what the error message is for your situation? There are several things that can get in the way of releasing multiple drawings, depending on how you have your preferences set, part numbers assigned, drawings needing updates, etc.

@John_vd_Werff can you show your error too? If you have two different parts that share a part number - that can cause issues. You'll need to make sure that the Part Number custom property for your Mirrored versions are different from the "original" versions. Different configurations of the same assembly released in the same Release Candidate can also cause this problem.

You can release multiple drawings with multiple assemblies and subassemblies and parts - but the more items you're releasing at a time, the more chances for small issues to interfere.

John_vd_Werff

While making a public demo file I discovered that I couldn't recreate the issue anymore.
Looks like the issues I had 2 days ago are gone, I can release all drawings for mirrord parts and subassemblies in one go.

jakeramsley

Hi John_vd_Werff,

We had an issue with multiple drawings in a release package that was resolved at ~4:30PM EST yesterday.  This was not an intended behavior.  If you see any issues at this point, please submit a support ticket so that we are better able to investigate.

Dennis_Varkevisser

Hereby my way of working:

- Hereby a folder containing an sheet-metal assembly. 
- All components are in separate documents (for this example)
- All components have a separate drawing.
- The assembly also has a drawing.



- when the design is ready to sent to production parties I release all components first (so not the drawings)



- Now I open the drawings one-by-one and choose "update linked document" I point all the drawings to the latest released version of the 3d models. All model releases are stored in one release.



- On the above drawing you can see "released" in the tittle block. This property comes from the model. (Sheet reference "state") The REV is "-" and the revision table are not correct yet. 
- To finalize I release the drawings. I want to do this in one action!
- This is not possible, I get an error message.


The above picture is the window were I gather all drawings from the folder (the screen is not correct, I made it after the release. The drawings should be revised from B to C, C is the release of the 3D cad models.

- I am only able to release the drawings one by one. 
- So in this case I have 4 drawing releases.
- The big disadvantage of this situation is that for the drawing to be shown correct I need to select the right revision state for each drawing before I can export to pdf.:



- I dont think this is the right way of working, I cannot batch-export because I need a specific release for each drawing.
- But what is an alternative way to achieve this without the separate releases? 
- It would be an advantage to be able to release all drawings in one release action but then still this is not a clear way of working.
- For my current assignment I work a lot with Solidworks + Windchill and Solidworks + 3DX. Here you release a lot of files at once, if you look for drawings in the database you can configure to be shown "latest released", and I like that there is no new version made automatically after release like in Onshape were a "main"  is made as soon as a release is finished. 

What is the alternative way of working in Onshape? Am I overlooking something? How are other people dealing with this situation?
There are also a lot of downsides to working with a lot of folders like I am doing, I have to update my assemblies all the time if I made changes to designs in folders, with Solidworks I am used to a situation were an assembly is alway made with the latest versions of the parts inserted. So updates to parts are reflected in assemblies without update-commands.

Best regards, 
Dennis Varkevisser

Nath_McC

I also find the drawings to be a bit of a problem when it comes to having them released. 

I think it would be good to have some sort of filter to show released versions. 

it could be a good idea to add it for an improvement request.

wayne_sauder

@Dennis_Varkevisser.
Exactly what error message are you getting and when? After you click the release button? 
Also, just a curious question why bother releasing the parts first? I usually just release the drawings and onshape forces the release of the part associated with it. Maybe this is a poor practice???