Onshape Tasks: Key Benefits and Use Cases

What Are Onshape Tasks?

Onshape Tasks is a centralized hub for managing design-related activities in Onshape. Assign tasks to specific individuals or teams, providing clear ownership and accountability for project milestones. Tasks range from simple design revisions to complex engineering calculations, ensuring all project requirements are tracked and executed efficiently.

Imagine a scenario where a component needs to be redesigned based on new specifications. Instead of sending emails or relying on informal communication, create a task directly in Onshape, detailing the changes required and assigning it to the appropriate engineer. This ensures clarity, transparency, and a documented record of the design process.

Tasks are seamlessly integrated with the Onshape platform, allowing you to link them to specific parts, assemblies, or drawings. This provides a clear context for the task, enabling collaborators to easily understand the scope and target of the work.

Key Benefits of Onshape Tasks

Onshape Tasks offer numerous advantages, including:

• Improved Collaboration: Tasks foster a collaborative environment by providing a clear platform for communication, task assignment, and progress updates. This eliminates ambiguity and ensures all team members are aligned on project goals.

• Increased Accountability: Assigning tasks to specific individuals or teams fosters accountability. Users are aware of their responsibilities and deadlines, promoting a sense of ownership and responsibility for completing tasks on time.

• Enhanced Workflow Efficiency: Tasks streamline the design process by centralizing all project activities. This eliminates the need for separate spreadsheets or communication channels, simplifying workflow management and minimizing errors.

Furthermore, Onshape Tasks provide real-time progress updates, allowing project managers to track the status of individual tasks and overall project progress. This visibility ensures everyone is informed about project advancements and enables proactive problem-solving.

Improving Collaboration and Accountability

Collaboration is essential for successful product development. Onshape Tasks streamline the process by providing a centralized platform for communication and task assignment. Imagine a team working on a complex design project where multiple engineers need to contribute to different parts of the design. Onshape Tasks allow you to break down the project into manageable tasks, assigning them to specific individuals or teams.

Each task can include detailed instructions, relevant documents and version references, and even deadlines, ensuring everyone is clear on their responsibilities. The task interface also allows for real-time updates and comments, enabling team members to stay informed about progress and collaborate seamlessly. This transparency and open communication promote accountability, ensuring everyone is responsible for completing their assigned tasks effectively.

By promoting collaboration and accountability, Onshape Tasks minimize miscommunication, delays, and unnecessary rework, leading to a smoother and more efficient design process.

Enhancing Design Review and Approval

Design reviews are crucial for ensuring the quality and functionality of your products. Onshape Tasks facilitate a seamless review process. Once a task is completed, you can initiate a design review by assigning it to the appropriate reviewers via Onshape's Release Management. This creates a clear audit trail of the design process, ensuring that all changes are properly documented and approved.

Reviewers can access the task details, including the design, comments, and previous revisions, allowing them to thoroughly assess the design and provide constructive feedback. The task interface also allows for discussions and annotations directly on the design, facilitating a more efficient and collaborative review process.

Onshape Tasks During Engineering Change Management (ECOs, ECRs, etc.)

Engineering change management is a critical aspect of product development. It ensures that all changes are properly documented, approved, and implemented. Onshape Tasks provides a robust framework for managing design changes, simplifying the process, and enhancing collaboration.

When an Onshape user at your company submits a design change request, you can create a task in Onshape, linking it to the specific part, assembly, or drawing affected by the change. The task can then be assigned to the appropriate engineer, who will implement the change and update the design.

The task interface allows for detailed documentation of the change request, including the reason for the change, the affected components, and the proposed solution. This ensures transparency and traceability, making it easy to track the history of all design changes.

Tasks can be executed on Workspace branches, named versions, or revisions.  

A benefit of creating Tasks on versions or release candidates is that you can create comments and tasks that are related to a certain managed process in your company.

Simply open the version of the document you wish to interact with and add Tasks with comments to that version of the design. Onshape Follow Mode is a useful review tool at this stage when reviewing a design with colleagues and vendors. Furthermore, two or more people can even look at the drawing package at the same time to add redlines and other comments, all while being managed by a repeatable and secure review process. 

Unlocking the Full Potential of Onshape

Onshape Tasks are a powerful tool for streamlining your design workflow, promoting collaboration, automating repetitive processes, and enhancing design review and approval. This accelerates your product development cycles, improves design quality, and boosts team efficiency.

Onshape Tasks are seamlessly integrated with the Onshape platform, making them easy to implement and use. With a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features, they are an ideal solution for managing design projects of all sizes.