Revising items in Upchain

00:04

In this video, we explore how to revise a released item in the Web application and discuss when you would need to perform these tasks.

00:13

So let's take a look.

00:17

It is often the case that the first release of an item is not the final product.

00:21

There could be any number of reasons why an item might need to be revised and changes could be identified at any time.

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For example, a customer may not be happy with the design and want further changes.

00:34

When assembling the final product, someone may identify design flaws or when testing that the final product works in the physical world,

00:43

further issues may still reveal themselves.

00:46

Perhaps even someone has identified issues with the drawings or documentation in the item and the design itself is fine.

00:54

Whatever the case may be, we need a way to put a released item into a development state so that these changes can be made.

01:03

Let's first explore what needs to happen when revising an item.

01:10

If I need to make a change to this component,

01:14

I also need to revise the released parent item and the release parents above it, and so on.

01:22

This is because of the same logic we used when releasing the assembly.

01:26

The assembly cannot be considered finished if some of its components are still in development.

01:32

Hence, if we start revising a component, the assembly must also be revised.

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This is also true for electrical packages.

01:44

Revising an item in the Web application should only be done for electrical items and items without CAD.

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This is because the Web application does not handle mechanical CAD files in the way that the CAD plugin does,

01:58

and instead removes CAD files when creating a new item version.

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Therefore, if you are working with items that contain mechanical CAD files that you do not wish to lose,

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even if you don't intend on making any design or drawing changes, you must revise them in the Mechanical CAD plugin.

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We'll show you how to do this in the next video.

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Let's take this electrical package as an example.

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Because its parent is also released, it must be revised first.

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Then, the electrical package and all of its items can be revised.

02:43

You would then need to revise the electrical package before you can revise any of the child components.

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So to revise an item in the Web application, click the action menu, select "New Version".

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A new version of the item is created and replaces its released version in its place.

03:08

Let's refresh the page.

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And now you can see the new item version has been created.

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The Major and Minor Revisions have not changed, but the version has incremented by one and the item is now in development.

03:28

We can now revise the electrical package.

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Same process, click the action menu, then choose "New Version".

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Again, a new version of the electrical package is created and replaced is its development version in its current location.

03:51

You could then repeat this process for any components that also need to be revised.

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Note that the released version of the item still exists in Upchain. You can see that in where used.

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And it will continue to exist in other areas where it's still being used.

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This is because nothing is ever deleted and every change made does not overwrite previous versions.

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What we've done in this example is make a new item version.

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All locations that still reference the previously released version of the item will continue to do so.

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If we look in a different project...

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We can now see a warning symbol beside the released version of the item indicating that there is now a newer version of the item.

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So users here might be concerned that they are no longer working with the most recent information,

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so please be careful before revising an item,

05:02

and check its "Where used" tab to ensure your revisions will not negatively impact other assemblies and other projects.

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Let's go back to our main project.

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You may encounter one of the following warning messages when revising in the Web application.

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If the item you're trying to revise exists under a released parent,

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you'll receive a warning indicating that you cannot revise this part until you revise its parent above it.

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If the item contains CAD, as in this example,

05:47

choosing new version gives you a warning to say the item has a CAD model attached and revising the item will remove the CAD file.

05:58

Again, if you're working with items that contain mechanical CAD files that you wish to keep, do not use this method.

06:05

This method should only be used for electrical items and items with no CAD.

06:11

However, you can use this method if you do wish to replace the CAD file inside an item, but retain its item number.

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This might be useful for purchase parts.

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Once the new version is created without any CAD,

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you would then use "Find item in the Mechanical CAD plugin" to associate new CAD to the item.

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More information on this can be found in our mCAD courses.

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As you're making changes to the item, you should keep track of the changes you've made using the revision note item attribute.

06:49

Remember that this attribute is required on a Change Request and defaults to initial release when you release the item the first time.

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However, there will be no default value during subsequent releases.

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And it is down to you or the creator of the Change Request to fill this out.

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It can be hard to remember what changes you've made by the time you get to the Change Request stage.

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So it is best to document these changes at the time you've made them while it's still fresh in your mind.

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If you're working in the Web application on these changes, you can fill out the revision note here.

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You can also fill out the release type ahead of time as well, Major or Minor.

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Again, this just ensures that this will already be filled out once this item gets to the Change Request stage.

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This can save you an extra step later on in the Change Request when deciding whether the changes were Major or Minor.

00:05

In this video, we explore how to revise a released item in the mechanical CAD plugin and discuss when you would need to perform these tasks.

00:13

So let's take a look.

00:16

Let's first review what needs to happen when revising an item within a released assembly.

00:27

If I need to make a change to this component,

00:31

I also need to revise its released parent and the release parent above it, and so on.

00:39

This is because of the same logic we used when releasing the assembly.

00:44

The assembly cannot be considered finished if some of its components are still in development.

00:51

And since we start revising our components, the assembly must also be revised.

00:60

Let's address our assigned Investigation request.

01:06

Since it is for our drone assembly that we created in the mCAD courses, we must revise these items in the mechanical CAD plugin.

01:16

To revise a released item in the mechanical CAD plugin,

01:19

the item must be checked out and then saved or checked back in to create the new item version with a new file version.

01:28

You can do this in a couple of ways.

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From the project BOM view, right click the item and select "Check out".

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The drawing, if one exists, must also be checked out as well so that a new file version can be created for it too.

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And then once downloaded, you would open it into your CAD system and then refresh the cBOM view.

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Alternatively, if you are downloading from your Investigation request,

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or if you already had the released CAD open in your CAD system, you would simply check out from the cBOM view.

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Here, we're downloading our files from the Investigation request.

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And opening it into our CAD system.

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Again, if you already had it open in your CAD system, you would simply refresh the cBOM view.

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Now, you can right click an item and select "Check out",

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and you can tick the box beside any other item you wish to revise.

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Again, if you are revising a component, you must remember to also revise the parent items above it, as well.

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Click the "Check out" button.

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In this window, confirm that we do indeed wish to create new item versions, we do wish to check out the released items.

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Now that the released items are checked out, you can see that with the lock beside them,

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you must save or check them back in to finish creating the new item version that's in a development state.

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Currently, the files are still released and so we must save or check in to create those new item versions.

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You should do this before you start making any changes to any aspects of the items.

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Since we are making a new object, a new item version, we need to select the location for the new item.

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We will choose the location that the currently released version exists so that it gets replaced with its new development version.

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This just confirms that the chosen location already has items. And do we wish to add our new items to that location?

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Yes, we do.

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This confirms that the model itself has not changed. Do we wish to make a new file version?

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Yes, we do.

05:04

The BOM wizard opens again to confirm which items will become new item versions, will receive new item versions.

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There's nothing you need to do here other than confirm that and then click "OK".

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The new versions of the items are now in a development state.

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They are still checked out because we chose "Save" and now they can be modified as required.

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If we didn't need to make any model changes, we could simply cancel the checkout or check in and make any necessary changes elsewhere.

06:08

We are asked to make model changes so we are going to continue here.

06:15

Note here, in the "Where used" tab,

06:17

that the released version of the item still exists in Upchain and will continue to exist in all other areas where it's still being used.

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When we checked in, we were asked to choose just one location for the new item version,

06:32

and so we replaced the released version with the latest version in this drone project.

06:39

This is because nothing is ever deleted. Every change made does not overwrite previous versions. Simply makes new ones.

06:47

What we've done in this example is make a new item version that contains a new file version inside of it.

06:55

All other locations that still reference the previously released version of the item, if we look in this project...

07:07

We'll now see a warning symbol indicating that there is now a newer version of this item.

07:14

And again, this may make others nervous when looking at this wondering why they no longer have the latest version.

07:23

So again, please be careful before revising an item,

07:28

and check its "Where used" tab to ensure your revisions will not negatively impact any other assemblies or projects,

07:37

those other projects may not want the latest version that you are creating.

07:51

As you're making changes to the item, whether it be in the Web application or in the mechanical CAD plugin,

07:57

you should keep track of the changes you've made using the Revision note item attributes.

08:04

You can find that here.

08:06

Remember that this attribute is required on a Change Request and defaults to initial release when you release the item the first time.

08:15

However, there will be no default value during subsequent releases and it is down to you,

08:20

or the creator of the Change Request to fill out this information.

08:24

It can be hard to remember what changes you've made by the time you get to the Change Request stage.

08:30

So it is best to document these changes at the time you've made them while it is fresh in your mind.

08:39

To be able to set this note, the item must be checked out.

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You can either do this from the item view or the lower pane in the cBOM view.

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All of this can save you an extra step later on,

08:58

on the Change Request when deciding if your changes were Major or Minor based on the revision note that you filled in here.

09:14

Because we also revised the subassembly, these will also require revision notes.

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You can simply state what has happened underneath it to its components.

09:30

And the same is true for the parent assembly.

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Let's finish up this revision. We've made our design changes.

09:53

Check in the items that you have revised.

10:24

Now let's mark the Investigation request as complete.

10:30

Click the "Investigation complete" button.

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Assuming the work is approved by the project manager, this item is now ready to be released again to our production item maturity level.