Automatically organizing the tab bar

bill_daniels

OK, maybe not a new idea but search didn't turn up anything.

I often find that must jump from a part studio to the drawing of that part or vice versa.  It would be nice to have an option so that the drawing tab and the part studio tab would always be next to each other in the tab bar.  This would be very helpful when sending parts to machine shops in that I could tell them the drawing tab is next to the part tab.

I know I can open both in browser tabs but I have to find them first.

Bill Daniels

lougallo

@bill_daniels So in many cases you will have a multi-part studio that has a number of drawings or you have a drawing with multiple sheets that reference a number of other parts/assemblies.. It begins to get very difficult to add automation around things that have way to many variables.  We added folders for this reason so you can do the organization.  Are you using the tab manager now?

lougallo

Since there are too many scenarios this will not really work, I will move this over to Product feedback for discussion.

brucebartlett

I think Bill has a good point here, I think there could be improvements on ways to access and organize Tabs. In some projects I've spent alot of time moving tabs around to make the documents neat and organized others I have just let run wild. I would be completely lost without the tab manager and find folders helpful but I don't think they are the greatest way to organize tabs as bits get lost. In a couple of projects, I had very ordered part numbers and found I could use the name search in the tab manager to group the drawings, assy's and BOM's and I then tried dragging tabs to match, I found the part studio's didn't quite work with the part number naming system and sorting, as my product structure didn't match my part studio's so I just tended to name them with part numbers and bunch them at the end of the doc. 

I think it can be really confusing when sharing a new unfamiliar person to a document, I feel almost embased the first time someone jumps in an Onshape Doc and becomes lost with tabs. I think we need some improvement around how to view the creations/products, I feel I want to have the part studio's hidden to them and a nicely laid product structure on a BOM style tree so they can easily understand the product structure and get the info they need. 

I'd also like to see RMB on part/assy to go to drawing/drawings. 

konstantin_shiriazdanov

that why i say that document-based invironment is not convinient for users. in real world we have a single entity called part/assembly and all the documents like 3d model, drawing, bom, cae analisys, cam process are just attributes of that entity. and that why i made an IR for project management invironment with part-centric representation

3dcad

I think first step could be tab manager colors / icons. When having part studio open, show color/icon for assemblies and drawings that include parts from this studio and vice versa with drawings and assy.

I would like to see more functionality in tab manager, it could be source for adding local parts to assembly, it could be configured to show more info than just tab name (part lists with part number, material etc..)

What do you guys think of advanced tab manager?

bill_daniels

An advanced tab manager is the right direction - colors are a good idea. The user should be able to select from several scenarios.  When doing part studio/drawing work, click a box which places the drawing tab just to the right of the part studio represented in the drawing.  When doing assembly work, click another box which places all part studio tabs in that assembly to the right of the assembly tab.  A presentation mode would have the top assembly tab at the left end with sub-assemblies to the right followed by part studios then drawings ending up with folders.

Folders are useful for many things but not for the above scenarios.  I tend to use them for things like imported items like bearings, nut & bolts and PDF product spec sheets.

3dcad

@bill_daniels
Do you use the actual Tab manager (vertical bar on left)? I see your talking about right/left, I'm all about enhancing the vertical list.

Keyboard shortcut [alt + T]


https://cad.onshape.com/help/#elementtabs.htm

brucebartlett

@3dcad advanced tab manager is an awesome idea, but I think it needs to go further than just tab management to product structure management including assy's, BOM's, parts, DXF's, NC, CAE, drawings and pdf' (drawings or ref doc's). This needs to show both in doc tabs and linked tabs outside to other docs.

bill_daniels

My bad.  I was thinking of something new applied to the tab bar.

3dcad

@brucebartlett Exactly! This could be fine forum IR for voting and sharing different approaches and ideas.

brucebartlett

@3dcad and decent in document search like the home screen with a global where used incorporated into the tab manager would be handy too.