Could someone explain the finer points of moving a Tab from one Document to another?

StephenG

I just successfully moved a "Part Studio" tab from one doc to another, however, I do not feel I have a complete grasp of the workflow.

I would appreciate it if someone would explain/answer some questions that came up in the process of doing it.

First, when prompted to identify the target document and branch I see it creates a new version. I am at a loss at to why a new version is necessary. I am looking for an answer along the lines: A version needs to be created because ___________.

Second, if the "Part Studio" tab is the only tab in the Doc I cannot move it. Apparently, every Onshape (OS) document must have at least one tab.

I know this seems like a silly question, but why cannot I have a empty Doc?

Who is to say that every newly created document needs to be created with a "Part Studio" and "Assembly" tab? I can think of plenty of usage scenarios that make that an invalid assumption. I can understand a document being initialized with a "Part Studio", after all OS is 3D modeler, but why always create an assembly tab?

(Expected answer: Our extensive market research and focus groups have shown that 67.7% of the respondents want OS documents to be initialized with 1 Part Studio and 1 Assembly tab.  Comment: A want is not the same as a need.) 

In my limited usage of OS, my normal practice with a new document is to:

1) Rename the default "Part Studio 1" tab to something meaningful.
2) Delete the "Assembly 1" tab.
3) Create a "Folder" tab names "Docs"
4) Import whatever information I have that pertains to this design activity into the "Docs" folder.

(Just as it is with Drawings, it would be nice to have templates to create documents initialized with the characteristics I want.)

If and when the time comes to create an assembly, I create an assembly tab. If the assembly is going to include purchased parts I will create another folder name "Purchased Parts" to hold the FeatureScript interfaces to the external 3D Parts Library and any model pulled from the external libraries of 3D parts providers. 
  
Enough questions.

brucebartlett

Here my attempt to answer your questions, original question in italics. 

First, when prompted to identify the target document and branch I see it creates a new version. I am at a loss at to why a new version is necessary. I am looking for an answer along the lines: A version needs to be created because when the new document is linked back to the old document it can only come from a version, not the main workspace node, this is to maintain stability as it eliminates lost references.

Second, if the "Part Studio" tab is the only tab in the Doc I cannot move it. Apparently, every Onshape (OS) document must have at least one tab. It is correct that you must maintain at least 1 tab. Never bothers me.

I know this seems like a silly question, but why cannot I have a empty Doc?  I can't see any valid reason to have an empty doc best to just copy the tab out rather than move and delete the doc completely.

If you want a template for a document just set a document up they way you want it as a template, when you want to start a new doc just open the template doc and make a copy.

brucebartlett

Here my attempt to answer your questions, original question in italics. 

First, when prompted to identify the target document and branch I see it creates a new version. I am at a loss at to why a new version is necessary. I am looking for an answer along the lines: A version needs to be created because when the new document is linked back to the old document it can only come from a version, not the main workspace node, this is to maintain stability as it eliminates lost references.

Second, if the "Part Studio" tab is the only tab in the Doc I cannot move it. Apparently, every Onshape (OS) document must have at least one tab. It is correct that you must maintain at least 1 tab. Never bothers me.

I know this seems like a silly question, but why cannot I have a empty Doc?  I can't see any valid reason to have an empty doc best to just copy the tab out rather than move and delete the doc completely.

If you want a template for a document just set a document up they way you want it as a template, when you want to start a new doc just open the template doc and make a copy.

StephenG

Thank you for the clarification.

Your explanation makes sense. Let me restate what you said and correct me if it is not 100% correct.

When you move a Part Studio tab (or Drawing, or Assembly tab for that matter) from one document to another document you want to insurance that two things happen:

1) What you think is being moved is what is moved. The only way to guarantee this is to create a snapshot of the state of the design (a immutable version). Onshape's collaborative capability opens the possibility of things changing while you are in the process of doing the move.

2) The Part Studio could be dependent on ASSY "In-Context" references and these need to captured (snapped shotted as well); a version does that.

The above got me to thinking...

What happens if a collaborator is working in the same document/branch/tab that you are about to move? How will this impact the collaborator?

When moving a Part Studio tab that has "In-Context" references, I assume the references still point back to (are dependent) on the assembly data in the "from" Document. How well does Onshape help a user unravel/communicate document dependency?

Regarding document templates....

In retrospect, my idea for having Document Templates was pretty lame. Under no circumstance should Onshape entertain such a thing. I came to the same solution you suggested: simply create a document that has the characteristics you want to always start with and "copy it" instead of using the "Create" document button. However, I went one step farther; I created a "Label" named "Document Template" and applied it to (tagged) the doc I want to be known as a template. 

brucebartlett

StephenG said:

What happens if a collaborator is working in the same document/branch/tab that you are about to move? How will this impact the collaborator?

When moving a Part Studio tab that has "In-Context" references, I assume the references still point back to (are dependent) on the assembly data in the "from" Document. How well does Onshape help a user unravel/communicate document dependency?

You can not move a tab if you have a collaborator, I found this out yesterday as I accidently had the document open twice when testing the tab move and I had a warning come up.

I haven't tried an "In-Context" part studio move yet but imagine it should work ok, it will just reference back to the immutable source. But it could get a bit complicated trying to unravel dependency, I think I'd try and avoid this if possible.