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My employer has had me create a model of a vendor product (using OnShape) and make a simple drawing with some overall dimensions that we can hand to customers. However, they want to include the firmware revision of this product in the drawing. I'm not sure how often this firmware will update, but the plan is to eventually buy the chip from the vendor and load it with our own firmware. I've done a lot of solid modeling, but actually have very little drawing/drafting experience. Wondering what best practice is?

My initial thought was to add a revision table with firmware version + date changed, but that could potentially balloon beyond control. The next idea I had was to rely on onshape's version history. Just create a note of the firmware revision number, then update the note and release a new revision every time it increments.

As I've thought about it, it really doesn't make sense to track the firmware in a mechanical drawing, but they're pretty adamant about this (most of them are electrical engineers, I'm the only mechanical - none of us know what we're doing)

Thanks for any advice!

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    $\begingroup$ @Solar Mike - I think there's a real question about versioning and recordkeeping practices in here. For the record I agree with OP's instinct, better to keep the firmware (or soft-anything) out of the mechanical drawing. IMO display it on the individual articles, or perhaps label it with a sticker if they don't have the ability to display their own soft versioning. $\endgroup$
    – Pete W
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 15:14

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Add the revision table, but make it a rolling table with e.g. max 5-10 rows, or whatever fits neatly on your drawing, where the oldest information gets pushed off the bottom/top of the table once it's full.

It's OK for the latest drawing to not show a full history of all firmware changes, as long as its easy to find an older drawing that has that information on, if you need it.

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  • $\begingroup$ I've seen some documents intended for customers omit a revision history block entirely and just list the current revision on the title block. $\endgroup$
    – jko
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 18:40
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the suggestions, people, I'll gather up these up and present them to management w/ the one from @Pete W $\endgroup$
    – Optimum
    Commented Dec 1, 2021 at 16:17

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