Link to public documents?

julian_leland

Is there - or will there be - any way to generate a permalink to all of a user's public documents? I'm creating a new personal website, and would like to put a link to my public OnShape documents in the footer, alongside the "Find me on Twitter/GitHub/etc." links, so people can take a look at the models I've made. If I could have something like "cad.onshape.com/<username>" direct people to view all of my public models, that would be awesome.

(Obviously, I realize that this is of limited use now, since most people aren't able to log in to see the files. However, could be some neat guerrilla marketing...)

Ben_

I have had luck making a model public, opening the public document, copying the URL, and sending that to others in the community. I will assume similar capabilities will be implemented when OS goes public with truncated or vanity urls.

lougallo

It is probably all about your profile right?  Like most social networks, the profile is where you make your shingle.  Click on the link, see your avatar, badges, comments, discussions, public models (thumbnails, etc).  What else would you like to have as your public display?

pete_yodis

@LouGallo Some way to incorporate twitter easily into the mix.  Tweet out the link right from within Onshape?

Ben_

For me it would be Facebook and linked in hyperlinks

julian_leland

@LouGallo‌ - while social content is nice, what's most important to me is showing off what I make. I was envisioning something like the "My Documents" page that you get when you go to cad.onshape.com/documents - all of my public projects visible, thumbnails of each project with names and project info, a box on the side or top with the creator's profile info in it. There are lots of different ways that this could be executed, but the most important feature is that the creator's content is the central focus of the page.

I agree with @PDY and @Ben‌ about possible deeper social network integration (especially Twitter - tweeting a public model link from within OS would be awesome!). I'd like to be able to include links in my profile to my outside presences (Twitter, Facebook, GitHub, personal website, etc.), and I'd like the profile to be persistent across the OS ecosystem - the profile is attached to my CAD login, my presence on the forums, my public model page, etc. Asides from that, just keep it simple, professional, and gimmick-free. I'm sure others will disagree, but I think we're all adults - we don't need to be able to "poke" other users/other social network nonsense like that.

(Only exception to this might be "liking"/"+1'ing" content. I find it annoying, but I've read a few arguments claiming that the "like" function is one of the core social network innovations/critical for social network success.)

pete_yodis

I wonder how much value there would be in generating a QR code and link at the same time to the public URL.  This would be useful for shop floor access to the documentation.  Would also be useful for technical documentation for customers, etc...

pete_yodis

I mention QR codes because it feels like there could be something done to close the loop between physical products and their related documentation - even down to the exact build (revision, version, etc..)  This could parlay nicely with Model Based Definition.  Having a physical product in hand with a QR code would give you access (if desired) to the exact version of the definition used to create the physical.

Julian Leland Sorry to hijack the post... it just seemed really similar to what you are asking for.

julian_leland

@PDY - don't apologize, I think that's a great idea. To add on, I do think that the QR code should link back to the part/drawing/assembly/other file, rather than the entire document. If I have a QR code on a drawing, I'm going to want the manufacturer who's using the drawing to be able to access the part, but perhaps not the assembly/other notes that I have in there. This is also more food for thought re: how document access is going to work in the future.

lougallo

Social integration is easy, especially if we would just provide an RSS feed of public models and you can use any number of tools to post for you... Building clients into services is also trivial as well.  I agree @Julian Leland‌  that if we have a profile page that displays your achievements/designs in a way that showcases you, that makes an interesting landing page.  Good stuff!  Other ideas?

Ben_

Integration of the profile page into my blog or website. 

pete_yodis

@Julian Leland With regards to your add-on.  I've been thinking about how a link could be controlled to show some information, but not all.  The concept of configurations comes to mind.  A different configuration could be extended to some people, but not others.  Don't know what Onshape has planned for configurations yet...

Ben_

A view count on the document and a list of who was looking at it when would be nice too. I realize the who was looking at it when is a stretch but view count would definitely be nice. 

pete_yodis

@Ben I like that idea.  I have often had that question asked of me with regards to current data management programs.  Folks eventually want to know who was looking at what.  A generic number of looks could be useful too...

billy2

There is no 3D on the web, yet it'd be nice to post a model on a website that shades & spins. It would be nice if OS controlled a webGL standard allowing us to save a format that could be included on a web page.

I was thinking that I could use an iFrame and link back to OS servers for a 3D model which might be OK, but what if I want to list a catalog page with 50 parts. Then I'd be asking OS to supply 50 models which might not work or make my webpage render really slow.

I've played with exporting stl to triangle to webgl and have had models spinning on my website, but this isn't for most people.

I've hacked edrawings and included them on my website, but it only works inside explorer which isn't a solution I want.

How many times have you been to a web site and been able to grab a model and spin it? It'd be nice if OS defined this, controlled this and open sourced this. This would define a whole new web experience for people and engineers would love it.

Oh yeah, to make it fun, let's link the OS's web output to keep the OS model & websites in-sync, if OS changes, bam! the website updates.

If I had this capability, I could build a manufacturing website that would parse engineering layouts and distribute to manufacturing. I would like this. 

The ultimate CAD solution:
Design 100% / Doc Control 0%