Downloading and Working with CAD Files

In this lesson, we’ll explore how to download and work with CAD files that have already been registered into Upchain.

Downloading CAD files and drawings

Let's learn how to download CAD files and drawings that have already been registered into Upchain, and what this process means for you and other users.

Please note there is a tenant property named "file.permissions.<YourCADSoftware>" that enables Upchain to set the read-write permissions of the files that are downloaded or checked out. This prevents accidental modification of CAD files that are not checked out from Upchain.

If enabled, files that are checked out become read-write and all others remain read-only to prevent accidental changes.
If this property is disabled, all files are read-write regardless of their check out status.
Please consult your Tenant administrator about this configuration. 

Key takeaways

1. When you Open a CAD file or drawing, you are downloading a copy of the file from the cloud to your computer.
2. The item is still available to other users to download or modify the contents of that item.
3. The home folder is the location on your local computer to which the CAD plugin downloads files, and from which Upchain uploads changes. 

Checking out CAD files and drawings

Let's see how to edit a CAD file and drawing, and how to commit your changes back into Upchain. As a CAD user, this is the task that you’ll perform most frequently and is the key to being able to manage your CAD data and drawings in Upchain.

Key takeaways

1. You must check out an item to edit its CAD file and/or drawing.
2. A checked out item is locked to you for editing and no one else may edit the item at the same time. However, other users may download a copy of the latest file version saved into Upchain.
3. When you wish to commit your changes to Upchain, you have two options: either Save or Check in.
4. You can Save the file to create a new version of the file but retain the check out lock to continue working.
5. You can Check in the files to create a new version of the files and remove the check out lock.
6. You can always cancel a Check out to remove the check out lock and not commit any changes to Upchain.

Editing item attributes

In this video, we review how to edit an item’s attributes from the CAD plugin. As a CAD user, this is an important part of working with items as the attributes describe the item more completely so that your teammates and downstream users fully understand what they’re looking at and working with.

Key takeways:

1. Item attributes describe the item and stay with the item regardless of where it is being used in Upchain.
2. eBOM attributes describe the item in the context of a specific eBOM and do not stay with the item as it is reused throughout Upchain.
3. In order to edit an item’s attributes, the item must be checked out.
4. You can edit the eBOM attributes of an item from the Item view of an assembly or from the Project BOM.