Document Organisation; How to deal with a growing list of TAB's

brucebartlett

I really enjoy the tab layout in Onshape but I am also looking for some improvements or suggestions on workflows to make it easier to navigate larger documents. As my documents get bigger and bigger in Onshape I am finding it hard to scroll through the tab's to find exactly what I am looking for, the vertical list helps but I still find  I spend considerable time scrolling and organising tabs. In other tab system i.e Excel or even web browsers I have never really had these issues, as generally not as many tabs are used. 

Some of the methods I am using at the moment are grouping common bits together, for example if I am using a bought out part I'll have the spec sheet, the part studio and the assembly (if required) grouped next to each other. Generally I am trying to sit part studio's and related assemblies next to each other and for drawings I have taken to adding these at the end of the tab list  and using the RMB (scroll to end) for quick access however I have also thought about grouping drawings with the related part studio/assembly. For my no. 1 tab position I normally have my top assembly and the main driving part studio at no 2 tab, keeping my created work toward to work towards the first position and imported and other bits towards the end before the drawings. It gets very cluttered/mixed up once jpg. pdfs and dxf files are added in the mix as well. 

I am really interested to see how others are working with tab's and any tips that maybe useful for improved work flow. I also hopeful we may see some improvements from Onshape to these areas down the track, ideally I don't want to be thinking too much about the document organisation but just banging the parts out and having easy access too everything I need in a well organised structure. 

shashank_aarya

brucebartlett said:

As my documents get bigger and bigger in Onshape I am finding it hard to scroll through the tab's to find exactly what I am looking for, the vertical list helps but I still find  I spend considerable time scrolling and organising tabs. In other tab system i.e Excel or even web browsers I have never really had these issues, as generally not as many tabs are used. 

Currently as a work around I am using ctrl+F. In chrome browser search window appears on top right corner. See the below screen image.

brucebartlett

@shashank_aarya , Just tried that one and it works perfectly, Thanks

3dcad

I've been thinking this a lot too or even more I've tried to figure out all the things that should be in one document (in each case).

I'm sure things will change with inter-document references and configurations, but for now, when we need to use standard parts as copies in every document where needed - I have decided to exploit branches to keep stuff available but not in the way.

My typical document has ca. 30 dxf files, few text files, some images and actual models which consist of 100+ parts and 10+ assemblies.
I have created a version before modeling anything, then I can create branches from that version to use as container for stuff that I need only at certain point (my dxf files contain dimensions for models, which are only needed during sketching).

I try to create as many parts in one studio as I can and use derive instead of subassembly when possible.

Still it's kind of mess with tabs, I have suggested few months ago to have vertical list for part studios, another for assemblies and so on - and this is still the best solution I could think of. We need something for sure, maybe simple grouping with expand/collapse (or vertical list) would be easiest at this point to gather more experience for finding the ultimate solution.

The worst thing are the imported files taking one tab / each (importing dxf creates 2 tabs, 1 for file and 1 drawing). I tend to delete all original files but deleting 30 tabs one by one makes me think there must be a better way. All imported files could be shown in a single tab.

Browser search (ctrl+f) works for small amount of tabs where everything is visible either in horizontal bar or vertical list. But it is not helping if the tab is behind scroll bar in vertical list and not visible in bottom bar current view either.