How do I update a template in an existing drawing

CAD_SSP

I have created a custom drawing template and need to make a slight change and update all the drawings that use it, how do i do this?

At least part of the feature is there according to https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/1689/change-drawing-template-on-the-fly but I cant find any documentation on how to use this feature.
@3dcad - do you know how your IR was implemented, am I being really thick not working it out?

There appears to be an option to "Change to version" but how do you create versions of DWT's?

CAD_SSP

So the answer as at now is that you can't!

lougallo

@keith_marsh That was basically to add a custom template... not really change it.  Here is the improvement to vote on:

https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/6001/change-border-template

CAD_SSP

So the answer as at now is that you can't!

craig_bond

Has there been any update on this? I need to be able to update drawing borders for a large amount of drawing and this seems to have been an issue for a long time?

Thanks
Howie

PeteYodis

@craig_bond Replacing a format for a drawing sheet is highly requested and it's very important for our users.  It's a priority of ours to get this in your hands.  To be clear, this won't include changing all the drawing level properties found in the drawing property panel - but it will include swapping the border, zones, and titleblock with one from an existing template.  If a size change is needed, that will occur as well.

If you also need to change all drawing level properties with one quick update from an existing template, this will be a separate improvement.  Drawing templates contain both the set of initial properties that a drawing will start with as well as the sheet format and sometimes users only want to update certain portions of those things.  

PeteYodis

@craig_bond @CAD_SSP


Here is sheet format swapping by selection of a template, in our latest release and now available to you:

Improvements to Onshape - March 22nd, 2019 — Onshape

left_side

This is a huge improvement.  Is there a way to select the continuation sheet (what its called in the DWT viewer) when updating beyond sheet 2 in a drawing?  Right now when I update sheet 2 it updates to the first sheet template (with a full title block) and doesn't recognize that I want to the continuation sheet template.  If I create a new drawing (which I don't want to do), sheet one is the full title block, and sheet 2 correctly is added with the simplified title block.  

john_mcclary

If i recall. If you create a second layout in your dwt that sheet will be used for continuation sheets 

andy_nias

PeteYodis said:

@craig_bond @CAD_SSP


Here is sheet format swapping by selection of a template, in our latest release and now available to you:

Improvements to Onshape - March 22nd, 2019 — Onshape

Hi Pete, when I try to do this nothing happens. I have a new dwt template file which I can use to create a new drawing but when I select it using the instructions in the video it doesn't change the drawing at all. I thought I had followed all the instructions for creating new drawing template and as I say it will let me create a new drawing but not swap it into an existing one. Do you have any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? It looks like a great feature and will save me a lot of time if I can get it working. Thanks

PeteYodis

@andy_nias It's likely the elements of your template are not on the border, zones or title block.  We do different things with those elements on sheet size changes based on what they are assigned to.  For example we move a title block, but redraw the zones and border when you change the sheet size.  For the sheet format change, we look at what elements in the template are assigned to those and we only grab them on the operation.  Here is our best and most thorough resource on templates.  Pay attention to the areas that focus on "Move to..." operations in the instructions here:

Best Practices for Creating Native Onshape Drawing Templates - Onshape Learning Center

andy_nias

Thanks Pete thats' great. Totally solved it, I hadn't paid any attention to the "move to..." operation! Thanks for sorting me out.

arjan_bok

Are there any improvements planed for this function in the near future?

I ask, because I had to redo a template on a lot of drawings with lots of sheets for a customer today. And for now this can only be done by selecting each individual sheet and replace the template as shown in the video above. (which again involves a lot of mouse clicks and takes forever...).

I suggest Onshape to make the templates behave just like the linked documents (the small blue circle which shows if a linked document has changed to a newer version) So if the document where the templates originated from has a new version one can select update all and there you go all drawings and sheets update at the same time to the new version of the template.

Also I don't' see any answer to the question of 'Left_Side' about the continuation sheet template and in my experience this is still not select-able or am I missing something?