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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
In this lesson, we’ll show you how to copy the contents of one item into another, so that you are not starting a new project from scratch.
You’ll need to have items with CAD registered in Upchain already. This should be the case as long as you have completed the MCAD 3 course.
In this video, we discuss what it means to reuse an item as-is in multiple locations and important considerations to keep in mind as you reuse items.
Transcript
00:04
In this video, we discuss what it means to reuse an item as-is in multiple locations and the things to watch out for.
00:12
So, let’s take a look.
00:16
As you use Upchain more and more, you'll start to build up quite a large list of projects and items within those projects.
00:24
You may often find that new projects might be quite similar to previous projects,
00:29
anyone to use those design as a starting point going forward thereby saving you time.
00:37
It is possible to simply copy and paste an item from one project to another, this would be done in the web application as a start.
00:46
This means that the item is being referenced in multiple locations.
00:52
You can see this by viewing the Where used tab of the item in both the CAD plugin and the web application.
01:02
This means that while the item is in development, if someone makes a change to an item in one location,
01:10
the change is also seen in all other locations that the item is being used because it is the same item.
01:20
If the item is released, this puts the item into read only mode, making it easier to reuse items.
01:28
This would be common for things like standard parts.
01:31
However, if someone was to revise the item in one location.
01:40
All other places that use that released version would now be warned that it is no longer the latest version,
01:47
but they may not want to update to the latest version, especially if the latest version is being drastically changed.
01:55
So, the moral of the story is reusing items is a good thing and encouraged because it will save you time in the long run,
02:04
but you must be careful that your changes do not impact other unrelated projects.
02:10
In the next video, we'll show you how you can copy an item into a new item so that your changes do not impact any other projects.
Video transcript
00:04
In this video, we discuss what it means to reuse an item as-is in multiple locations and the things to watch out for.
00:12
So, let’s take a look.
00:16
As you use Upchain more and more, you'll start to build up quite a large list of projects and items within those projects.
00:24
You may often find that new projects might be quite similar to previous projects,
00:29
anyone to use those design as a starting point going forward thereby saving you time.
00:37
It is possible to simply copy and paste an item from one project to another, this would be done in the web application as a start.
00:46
This means that the item is being referenced in multiple locations.
00:52
You can see this by viewing the Where used tab of the item in both the CAD plugin and the web application.
01:02
This means that while the item is in development, if someone makes a change to an item in one location,
01:10
the change is also seen in all other locations that the item is being used because it is the same item.
01:20
If the item is released, this puts the item into read only mode, making it easier to reuse items.
01:28
This would be common for things like standard parts.
01:31
However, if someone was to revise the item in one location.
01:40
All other places that use that released version would now be warned that it is no longer the latest version,
01:47
but they may not want to update to the latest version, especially if the latest version is being drastically changed.
01:55
So, the moral of the story is reusing items is a good thing and encouraged because it will save you time in the long run,
02:04
but you must be careful that your changes do not impact other unrelated projects.
02:10
In the next video, we'll show you how you can copy an item into a new item so that your changes do not impact any other projects.
In this video, we’ll show you how you can copy the contents of one item into another. This is important functionality as you will often want to reuse designs so that you don’t need to start from scratch on every new project.
Transcript
00:04
In this video, we'll show you how you can copy the contents of one item into another.
00:09
This is important functionality as you will often want to reuse designs so that you don't need to start from scratch on every new project.
00:17
So, let's take a look.
00:21
What does it mean to copy an item in the CAD plugin?
00:24
Upchain provides you with the capability to copy the contents of an item into a new one.
00:31
This means you keep the CAD data, drawings, documents, and item attributes,
00:35
but a new item is created with a new item number and new file names,
00:41
and this new item will not impact any locations where the previous item exists.
00:51
In the My Assignments tab, this assignment says that I need to take the item in the Investigation Request and clone it.
00:58
But what does that mean?
01:02
To clone something in the CAD plugin means to take the item and copy it to a new item.
01:08
The new item will be placed in the location that you choose.
01:14
To clone this item, open it into your CAD system.
01:18
You can open it directly from this tab.
01:21
Click the Download button.
01:32
Open it into your CAD system.
01:37
Switch to the cBOM view and refresh.
01:49
Now, right click the assembly item at the top and choose Copy.
01:58
Two options now appear at the top to clone or to replace.
02:02
To clone an item means to take the chosen item and copy it to a new item.
02:08
The new item will be placed in the location that you choose, whereas replace takes the chosen item and copies it to a new item,
02:15
but replaces the chosen item with the new item in the location you are working in.
02:23
Generally, clone is better for the assemblies since you can use that as a starting point,
02:27
and then you can replace the components in that clone assembly afterwards, as you need to.
02:33
Here, we're going to clone the assembly and a few of its components.
02:37
So, work your way through the assembly and tick the box beside the items you wish to clone,
02:42
and untick the box beside the items you want to remain as their original item.
02:59
Now, click Clone.
03:02
You can monitor the progress of this in the status bar at the bottom.
03:09
It says it has been successfully completed.
03:12
However, it is only halfway there.
03:15
We need to refresh the cBOM view to see the results of what's happened.
03:31
Now, you can see that every item that was chosen to be copied has been temporarily unregistered.
03:37
By giving it a new name appended with NR.
03:42
You can also see that each chosen item is shown with an orange symbol beside it, a tooltip indicating that it has been cloned.
03:51
So, we need to complete the process.
03:53
To do this, we right click on the assembly, and choose Save or Check in.
03:59
We're going to choose Save because we want to continue working on it afterwards.
04:10
We need to choose the location for our new item.
04:14
So, we'll create it as an end item for now in our project.
04:36
The BOM wizard now opens to indicate which items are being created as new items,
04:42
as indicated by the green symbol, and you can see new items being created in the eBOM there.
04:51
Click OK.
04:53
The BOM wizard also opens for you to confirm the structure of the new eBOM.
05:00
Again, monitor the progress in the status bar.
05:13
And now you can see the results of the cloning process.
05:16
A new item was created for the assembly and the components that we chose,
05:22
new item numbers have been assigned to these items.
05:26
They are in a development state and checked out still.
05:30
Because all file names need to be unique in Upchain, it renames the files according to your file naming rules.
05:38
If you didn't have any rules set, it would simply be AP and a sequence of numbers.
05:44
If we check the where used tab now for the assembly, you can see that it only belongs in the project that we chose.
05:53
And if we look in the Genealogy section, you can see the item that was created as well as the original item that it came from.
06:05
This is why it is useful to clone an item rather than just renaming the CAD file and registering it as a new item.
06:13
As the cloning process retains the full history of the design and maintains the link to the original item that was copied.
06:26
It might be the case now that further items in this cloned assembly need to be copied into new items.
06:32
For example, if we look at this item,
06:36
if we look at this Where used tab, it now exists in both the original assembly and the cloned assembly.
06:43
So, if we were to start making changes to it, it would impact both assemblies, and we don't want to do that.
06:50
So, we should copy this item to a new item, and that way we won't have any impact on the original assembly.
06:57
For this, we can use the replace function.
06:60
So, to replace an item, ensure the parent assembly is checked out, and then right click and choose Copy.
07:17
Again, you're presented with clone or replace, as well as additional boxes for you to clone or replace additional items at the same time.
07:26
We are going to choose Replace.
07:31
Again, you can monitor the progress in the status bar.
07:44
Again, it's not complete.
07:46
We're left partially there, so we need to refresh the cBOM view.
07:58
Then right click the parent assembly, and choose Save again or Check in.
08:07
We're not presented with the location selector because Upchain already knows that the new item is going to replace the chosen item.
08:15
We see in the BOM wizard, a new item is going to be created, and you can see the location where that will be.
08:27
Again, click OK to complete the process.
08:46
The process completes and the new item is created in the chosen location, and it has replaced the original item.
08:56
Again, we chose Save, so the item is checked out.
08:60
And again, because all names need to be unique, all file names need to be unique,
09:05
Upchain has replaced the file name with its according to the file renaming rules.
09:12
Again, if we check the Where used tab, you can see that it only belongs in the clone assembly now, and you can see the item that it came from.
09:23
So, the moral of the story is before you start making changes to an item, check its where used tab first.
09:30
If the item is used in multiple locations and your changes will not be acceptable in other locations, then you should copy the item.
09:41
Now that we have completed our task of cloning the assembly and some of its components, let's go back to the My Assignments tab.
09:50
And from here, we can mark our task as complete by clicking the Investigation complete button.
09:59
This now moves the workflow along.
10:04
And it assigns a task now to the project manager of this project to either approve the work that has been done,
10:12
or choose rework to send work back to you.
10:16
If we now refresh this view, you can see the Investigation Request disappears because we no longer are assigned that task.
10:27
So, we found our assignment, completed it, all without leaving the CAD plugin.
Video transcript
00:04
In this video, we'll show you how you can copy the contents of one item into another.
00:09
This is important functionality as you will often want to reuse designs so that you don't need to start from scratch on every new project.
00:17
So, let's take a look.
00:21
What does it mean to copy an item in the CAD plugin?
00:24
Upchain provides you with the capability to copy the contents of an item into a new one.
00:31
This means you keep the CAD data, drawings, documents, and item attributes,
00:35
but a new item is created with a new item number and new file names,
00:41
and this new item will not impact any locations where the previous item exists.
00:51
In the My Assignments tab, this assignment says that I need to take the item in the Investigation Request and clone it.
00:58
But what does that mean?
01:02
To clone something in the CAD plugin means to take the item and copy it to a new item.
01:08
The new item will be placed in the location that you choose.
01:14
To clone this item, open it into your CAD system.
01:18
You can open it directly from this tab.
01:21
Click the Download button.
01:32
Open it into your CAD system.
01:37
Switch to the cBOM view and refresh.
01:49
Now, right click the assembly item at the top and choose Copy.
01:58
Two options now appear at the top to clone or to replace.
02:02
To clone an item means to take the chosen item and copy it to a new item.
02:08
The new item will be placed in the location that you choose, whereas replace takes the chosen item and copies it to a new item,
02:15
but replaces the chosen item with the new item in the location you are working in.
02:23
Generally, clone is better for the assemblies since you can use that as a starting point,
02:27
and then you can replace the components in that clone assembly afterwards, as you need to.
02:33
Here, we're going to clone the assembly and a few of its components.
02:37
So, work your way through the assembly and tick the box beside the items you wish to clone,
02:42
and untick the box beside the items you want to remain as their original item.
02:59
Now, click Clone.
03:02
You can monitor the progress of this in the status bar at the bottom.
03:09
It says it has been successfully completed.
03:12
However, it is only halfway there.
03:15
We need to refresh the cBOM view to see the results of what's happened.
03:31
Now, you can see that every item that was chosen to be copied has been temporarily unregistered.
03:37
By giving it a new name appended with NR.
03:42
You can also see that each chosen item is shown with an orange symbol beside it, a tooltip indicating that it has been cloned.
03:51
So, we need to complete the process.
03:53
To do this, we right click on the assembly, and choose Save or Check in.
03:59
We're going to choose Save because we want to continue working on it afterwards.
04:10
We need to choose the location for our new item.
04:14
So, we'll create it as an end item for now in our project.
04:36
The BOM wizard now opens to indicate which items are being created as new items,
04:42
as indicated by the green symbol, and you can see new items being created in the eBOM there.
04:51
Click OK.
04:53
The BOM wizard also opens for you to confirm the structure of the new eBOM.
05:00
Again, monitor the progress in the status bar.
05:13
And now you can see the results of the cloning process.
05:16
A new item was created for the assembly and the components that we chose,
05:22
new item numbers have been assigned to these items.
05:26
They are in a development state and checked out still.
05:30
Because all file names need to be unique in Upchain, it renames the files according to your file naming rules.
05:38
If you didn't have any rules set, it would simply be AP and a sequence of numbers.
05:44
If we check the where used tab now for the assembly, you can see that it only belongs in the project that we chose.
05:53
And if we look in the Genealogy section, you can see the item that was created as well as the original item that it came from.
06:05
This is why it is useful to clone an item rather than just renaming the CAD file and registering it as a new item.
06:13
As the cloning process retains the full history of the design and maintains the link to the original item that was copied.
06:26
It might be the case now that further items in this cloned assembly need to be copied into new items.
06:32
For example, if we look at this item,
06:36
if we look at this Where used tab, it now exists in both the original assembly and the cloned assembly.
06:43
So, if we were to start making changes to it, it would impact both assemblies, and we don't want to do that.
06:50
So, we should copy this item to a new item, and that way we won't have any impact on the original assembly.
06:57
For this, we can use the replace function.
06:60
So, to replace an item, ensure the parent assembly is checked out, and then right click and choose Copy.
07:17
Again, you're presented with clone or replace, as well as additional boxes for you to clone or replace additional items at the same time.
07:26
We are going to choose Replace.
07:31
Again, you can monitor the progress in the status bar.
07:44
Again, it's not complete.
07:46
We're left partially there, so we need to refresh the cBOM view.
07:58
Then right click the parent assembly, and choose Save again or Check in.
08:07
We're not presented with the location selector because Upchain already knows that the new item is going to replace the chosen item.
08:15
We see in the BOM wizard, a new item is going to be created, and you can see the location where that will be.
08:27
Again, click OK to complete the process.
08:46
The process completes and the new item is created in the chosen location, and it has replaced the original item.
08:56
Again, we chose Save, so the item is checked out.
08:60
And again, because all names need to be unique, all file names need to be unique,
09:05
Upchain has replaced the file name with its according to the file renaming rules.
09:12
Again, if we check the Where used tab, you can see that it only belongs in the clone assembly now, and you can see the item that it came from.
09:23
So, the moral of the story is before you start making changes to an item, check its where used tab first.
09:30
If the item is used in multiple locations and your changes will not be acceptable in other locations, then you should copy the item.
09:41
Now that we have completed our task of cloning the assembly and some of its components, let's go back to the My Assignments tab.
09:50
And from here, we can mark our task as complete by clicking the Investigation complete button.
09:59
This now moves the workflow along.
10:04
And it assigns a task now to the project manager of this project to either approve the work that has been done,
10:12
or choose rework to send work back to you.
10:16
If we now refresh this view, you can see the Investigation Request disappears because we no longer are assigned that task.
10:27
So, we found our assignment, completed it, all without leaving the CAD plugin.
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