Help Onshape improve the linked document behavior and workflow

andy_morris

Onshape assemblies support inserting parts and assemblies from versions of linked documents. When new versions are available you can update the instances in the assembly. 

The Product Design team at Onshape would like to learn more about your experiences of this functionality so we can improve the behavior, and performance.

Please take part in this survey and have your say.

We look forward to hearing from you,

Andy Morris
Product Design Manager

bill_daniels

There are issues but they're hard to define.  I often see higher level assemblies broken when seemingly innocuous changes are made to lower level assemblies.  This is often caused by conflicts in groups which can be relieved by deleting higher-level groups. Simple changes like moving a hole seem to cause no problem whereas changing mates in a sub-assembly will almost always cause problems.  A better handling of mate and group hand-off when inserting sub-assemblies may be an approach.

Links can become so entangled that a cause for errant behavior can't be traced.  I try to avoid links wherever possible.  For example, instead of moving a part studio to another document, I prefer to "Copy-to-clipboard" then paste tab as this seems to avoid creating a link.  Perhaps linking should be an "opt-in" feature

EvanReese

I find that only linking to a named version is cumbersome. I often end up with 5 or so versions in a row each with only 1 or 2 changes because I'm updating the top-level document with some linked docs, then realize I need one more tiny tweak (usually repairing a mate) then I have to version again. Since onshape is still recording every action a user takes, and I can go back to any action and convert it to a version, why can't I just update the linked document to the most recent action without creating a version? I know, having extra versions isn't the end of the world, but it really dilutes the value of having versions which should represent some meaningful milestone. If I have 100 bookmarks in my book, they aren't as helpful.

rob_rowland

I'd like to echo what @Evan_Reese said.  My experience has been very similar.   When moving through conceptual designs, the process of creating named versions can be cumbersome.  I end up with a ridiculous number of versions when moving back and forth between high and low level assemblies.  

I think there should be a capability to toggle automatic updating to the latest CAD (without needing a named version) on/off.   Then, if you toggle it off, you would be required to select a named version for it to be locked to.