Custom property "edit value in version" vs "edit value in workspace"??

S1mon

I'm setting up the custom properties for my company. I had my Enterprise onboarding with @Lindsay_Early (thanks!) today. 

I'm trying to understand the "edit value in version" vs "edit value in workspace" settings. I can imagine what these are for, but somehow I've read the help a dozen times and it's just not making any sense. 

Pay attention to where you allow a property to be edited, however. When creating a property (through the Properties tab in your account settings), you can mark it Edit value in workspace, Edit value in version or both. If you mark it Edit value in version only, you can edit that value in a BOM table for any released parts since released parts become part of a version. However if Edit value in version is not marked, you would have to branch a workspace from that version, edit the values, then either create a version, or re-release the parts.

1. Let's say I have a custom property of "Manufacturer part number" for some screws (as well as our P/N, and our vendor's P/N). Our P/N should only change if form fit or function change, but our vendor might decide to source from a different manufacturer. So I'd like to be able to change this property whenever, not tied to a version or revision. How do I set "edit value in version" vs "edit value in workspace"?
2. Now let's say that I have custom property of "Color". I'd like to change this some times, and it should be traceable to a particular version or revision. How do I set "edit value in version" vs "edit value in workspace"?
3. Is there a way to set "edit value in version" vs "edit value in workspace" such that if I retrieve any version or revision of a part, a custom property is always set to whatever the last change was?
4. What happens if I turn off both of these check boxes? Can the value ever be changed? What would I use that for? Do computed properties still work?

It seems like a table of these checkboxes and the intended behavior would be helpful. A little more information about why I would want to use each combination of settings would be super helpful. Also, while I've done a little with branching and merging, the last sentence in the help quote is especially baffling.

eric_pesty

Yeah I am not "super clear" on this either.

This is my understanding: the "edit in version" just means the metadata of a version can be changed (a version is otherwise static from a geometry perspective). This is needed if you want to be able to edit a BOM value of a part that is located in another document without having to create a new version. Any such changes show up in the history as "metadata update" (or something like this, I don't remember exactly). However I think this just means it gets edited in the specific version you are changing (i.e. the specific version called out by the assembly at the time you make the edit) so I don't think there is a way to achieve no 3 in your list.

If you don't allow edit in version, then you can only make a change on the workspace and any subsequent created version will have the new value but the data in each version will never change (metadata behaves the same as geometry at this point).

I guess the case for unchecking the "edit in workspace" would be if you want to change the data in a specific version of a part without changing the workspace, for example to mark a specific version as "do not use this version of this model" or something like this (but later ones and the current workspace are ok).

raj_Onshape

Use Edit Value in workspace when you want to change value in workspaces and have it propagate to all future versions. Past versions are unaffected.

Use Edit Value in version when you want to change a property in a past version.

As of now there is no easy way to edit a property in all versions outside of doing it yourself using Onshape APIs. There is no guarantee a part even exists in older versions

S1mon

@Lindsay_Early @NeilCooke

Can anyone answer these questions? I'm still baffled by these settings and the behavior of some of our custom properties.

eric_pesty

Yeah I am not "super clear" on this either.

This is my understanding: the "edit in version" just means the metadata of a version can be changed (a version is otherwise static from a geometry perspective). This is needed if you want to be able to edit a BOM value of a part that is located in another document without having to create a new version. Any such changes show up in the history as "metadata update" (or something like this, I don't remember exactly). However I think this just means it gets edited in the specific version you are changing (i.e. the specific version called out by the assembly at the time you make the edit) so I don't think there is a way to achieve no 3 in your list.

If you don't allow edit in version, then you can only make a change on the workspace and any subsequent created version will have the new value but the data in each version will never change (metadata behaves the same as geometry at this point).

I guess the case for unchecking the "edit in workspace" would be if you want to change the data in a specific version of a part without changing the workspace, for example to mark a specific version as "do not use this version of this model" or something like this (but later ones and the current workspace are ok).

S1mon

@eric_pesty

I'll have to put this in as an improvement request, but I'd really like to be able to edit the BOM for a bunch of parts at once without having to create new versions, and have those edits stick for subsequent versions.

I'd even be happy if there was a toggle in the BOM view which would enable entering information for the whole table and having it applied to workspaces which then needed to be versioned to show up regularly in the BOM. The key is that seeing the entire BOM at once is valuable, but I get that the edits should be version controlled in most cases.

S1mon

So here's a good example of something which I think I might want to use "Edit value in version", but I'm not sure it will work the way I would want: cost. As in the "US Dollar BOM cost at vendor, prior to MVA, shipping, operations etc."

This is a value that might change over time depending on raw material costs, etc, but independent of the version or revision of the part. If I set "Edit value in version", and I make a change to the latest version's price, will that carry over to future versions? Does it just apply to the version where the edit was made? It would make sense to me if it wasn't retroactive to all prior versions, but it would make sense if it applied going forward to later versions.

raj_Onshape

Use Edit Value in workspace when you want to change value in workspaces and have it propagate to all future versions. Past versions are unaffected.

Use Edit Value in version when you want to change a property in a past version.

As of now there is no easy way to edit a property in all versions outside of doing it yourself using Onshape APIs. There is no guarantee a part even exists in older versions

S1mon

@raj_Onshape

That helps a lot. Much more clear than the help. However, how does this behave when both options are turned on?

raj_Onshape

Turning both options on gives you maximum flexibility.. future versions inherit current workspace property edits .. and you can always go back and change it past versions as well..

Regardless of these check boxes once an item is released all properties are un-editable. And based on your release management settings a company admin can go and change properties in already release objects