Items, statuses, revisions, and versions in Upchain

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We are about to get you up to speed on items in Upchain.

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Specifically, this video will explain what an item is,

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how it works and help you to understand how different types of data are managed within an item.

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So let's find out what items are all about.

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Items in Upchain represent an object in your Bill of Materials.

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This can be an assembly, sub assembly, part or component.

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Each of these items are listed as a single line within your Bill of Materials.

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The best way to think about an item in Upchain is to think of it like a box.

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An item contains a set of information about the object listed.

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So what information is connected to an item?

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Well one of the key piece of information is item attributes.

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These are things such as quantity, manufacturer, cost and so forth.

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The CAD model is also part of item information.

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This means we can see and even work with the CAD file

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which is usually imported into Upchain and managed by its corresponding item.

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An item can also have drawings attached to it.

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These can be managed by the CAD model or attached separately.

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Translations are generated automatically by Upchain

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throughout the lifecycle of the item and documents are handled in a similar way to what drawings are,

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but these documents are different from CAD files, drawings and translations.

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These are usually support documents such as information about the part or supplier.

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Visualizations can be created manually to compare to similar objects

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and markups are changes related to the information for the item,

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for example adding comments or annotations to a drawing.

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Along with the information we just discussed

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items also have a data model to help identify it from other items in Upchain.

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This model consists of four main pieces of information.

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Item number, major revision, minor revision and version number.

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We'll start to unpack these aspects in more detail in upcoming videos.

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Now that we have an idea about the information contained within an item,

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let's go and see how to view this information in Upchain.

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In this video, we will be discussing the key item types listed in the Bill of Materials

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and the different status is an item can have throughout its lifecycle.

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Working with items requires a thorough understanding of how they might appear

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and what level of development they may be in.

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So let's take a look.

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Remember, you always need to select a project first

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in order to set the context for what you will be working with.

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Let's take a closer look at our fishing rod assembly.

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We can expand the parent in the navigation tree to view the items beneath it

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or simply select an item in the tree to have it displayed in the center of you.

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We can see the rod itself and also the fishing reel as separate parent assemblies.

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We can then expand further in either of the views to take a look at the items beneath our rod assembly,

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we will expand further on navigating the BOM management interface in an upcoming video.

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This fishing rod serves as a basic introductory assembly to explain some key concepts.

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The icons next to each item are a great way to help visually identify the item type.

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This will also help you to identify assemblies from individual parts and components.

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Assemblies for example, have three shapes grouped together

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while single items imported from CAD are usually displayed as a box icon.

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Upchain offers many different icon variations to help distinguish item types

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and the icon will depend on the chosen item type.

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Now that we have an understanding of the icons that we will find in our BOM structure.

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Let's take a closer look at different status is for our items.

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When an item is first added to a BOM structure, it is assigned status of development.

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With this status, the item can now be edited, meaning documents can be attached,

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attributes updated and general changes made to the model and drawings.

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When we are satisfied with the state of an item,

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we can submit it to a change request to begin a formal release.

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In this case, the status of the item will update to pending.

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This means that the item has been submitted for review and is now locked for editing.

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Upon approval of the change request, the item status changes to released.

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This means it is locked from most forms of editing and can now be made available to other departments.

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Should a change need to be made, a new version of the item will first need to be created.

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Feel free to jump over to the help center for more information on item types, icons or status.

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So now that we've identified what items might potentially look like

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and the possible status as they can be in.

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We will discuss versions and revisions in the next video.