Why are Drawings only accessible to one user at a time?

StephenG

Onshape makes a big deal about its ability to provide simultaneous editing access to its CAD data, as it should, because it makes concurrent collaborative design possible. To my knowledge no other MCAD product has this capability, (MCAD's answer to Google Docs.) however, this capability appears to only extend to Part Studios and Assemblies. Drawings appear to be accessible to only one person at a time, specifically, only one instance of a Drawing tab can be open at a time. Even when only one person is working a Drawing that person cannot create/open a duplicate browser tab of the Drawing tab.

This limitation makes it impossible to:

1. See different sheets of the drawing at the same time. There are times when it is appropriate to simultaneous see different sheets of a drawing.  
2. Concurrently/collaboratively do design work at the Drawing level. It is not uncommon for different persons, with different roles and skills, to complete/finalize a design to the point where the product can be a manufactured. (Given the current state of Onshape, drawings are the bridge (necessary evil) between the 3D model and the manufactured product.) Only one person can work the drawing at a time. Even if the document has been shared View Only only one person can view the drawing at a time. Even the ability to follow the person who has the Drawing tab opened is not possible.  

I am guessing this limitation is an artifact of Onshape's Drawing functionality not being 100% developed internally, but acquired from an external partner. It would be nice to know if this limitation is temporary, or permanent. 

philip_thomas

StephenG - We absolutely intend to support (first) concurrent viewers and then at a future data, concurrent editors.

PeteYodis

@StephenG As a current work around until we can offer concurrent viewers - you can duplicate the drawing tab in the workspace so that each person can view each drawing at the same time.  Just delete the duplicated drawing tab when you are done, if needed.  

You can also create a version and share that version.  Versions can be viewed simultaneously.

philip_thomas

StephenG - We absolutely intend to support (first) concurrent viewers and then at a future data, concurrent editors.

PeteYodis

@StephenG As a current work around until we can offer concurrent viewers - you can duplicate the drawing tab in the workspace so that each person can view each drawing at the same time.  Just delete the duplicated drawing tab when you are done, if needed.  

You can also create a version and share that version.  Versions can be viewed simultaneously.

StephenG

Temporary duplication of Drawing tab method works, but you have to create multiple duplicates if the intent is to have multiple users to view the drawing at the same time. The create version method appears to be a much better solution to support simultaneous viewing of a drawing(s).

Comment: The inability to concurrently edit a drawing is a classic "Grid Lock" problem that Onshape is so keen to address, yet completing a drawing can  be a choke point in getting a drawing ready for release because only one person can work the drawing at a time. This is especially a problem with multi-sheet drawings with a large number of sheets; it is not uncommon to have multiple "detailers" assigned to compete specific sheets to speed up the drawing process. For "file" based CAD systems that support multi-sheet drawings, where simultaneous multi-user editing is not possible, there is usually a technique that allows a multi-sheet drawing to broken into individual sheets, or groups of sheets, which allows multiple users to edit drawing fragments. Then there is a usually a technique to "merge" the fragments back into a single drawing entity/file. I know of no technique in OS that allows a multi-sheet drawing to be broken into unique drawing tabs: 1 sheet per drawing tab, along with ability to combine multiple single sheet drawing tabs into a single multi-sheet drawing tab.       

MBartlett21

@StephenG

You can view the drawing simultaneously on mobile

StephenG

Very Interesting.... Onshape mobile presents the user with a dialogue popup:

 

This makes its clear what is going on and gives the user 2 clear options. (Excellent wording in the Popup.)

Which begs the question: Why doesn't the browser based Onshape behave the same way?   @pete_yodis, @philip_thomas care to answer?

philip_thomas

Great Improvement (recorded) - thank you.

EricGauthier

If you just want to view a drawing and not edit it, another workaround would be to print it in PDF. But it is like a version where the data is not updated as the reference evolves.

ry_gb

Is this something that's still being focused on? 

We just moved to Onshape and are noticing that you still can't have multiple users viewing a single drawing tab. 

eric_pesty

ry_gb said:

Is this something that's still being focused on? 

We just moved to Onshape and are noticing that you still can't have multiple users viewing a single drawing tab. 

One fairly simple workaround is to open the version tree and select the last "microversion" before the workspace, this way you can view the drawing without "taking control" from someone else who is in the workspace. The last microversion is by definition identical to the current workspace, it just doesn't update "live" with every changes that are being made (so you have to refresh the version tree and pick whatever the new microversion is to see the latest updates).
Obviously you can't edit it from there but it solves the viewing problem. 

RhettRobinson

Publications also allow for concurrent viewing of a drawing, and you can comment on proposed changes there. @eric_pesty's idea seems to be the easiest for now.

ry_gb

I saw someone else suggest creating a Version, but the idea of just looking at a Micro version probably works better.