Zea Knowledge Base

December 20, 2024

Notes:

The Zea Platform API was experiencing heavy traffic from some unknown sources causing outages. To block portentially unwatned access to the API, we changed a single endpoint. This change was intended to break shceudled processing that was running on machines that needed maintenance. The solution is to update those machines with the latest version of Zea Sync.

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Attachments Display: Attachements are temporarily disabled untill the next release.

Desktop

Scheduled Processing: Scheduled processing is temporarily disabled.

Breaking Change: A minor bug breaking change was made to the API to force users to upgrade older versions of Zea Sync.

November 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Improved SBOM Flexibility: You can now sync SBOMs with custom structures, including Kits, without having to follow the CAD hierarchy.

Kit Display: SBOMs for Kits now display the kit parts automatically.

Desktop

Windows Shortcuts: Zea Sync now scans local folders with shortcuts to other folders on Windows.

Networked Paths: Syncing from networked paths (e.g., //other-pc/shared-folders/folder) has also been added.

Zea Illustrations

Enhanced Viewer Interactions: Viewers can now select parts in the Illustrations Editor to view metadata and temporarily transform, hide, or show parts. Changes revert after refreshing the browser. Published illustrations maintain the previous functionality where parts cannot be selected.

Real-Time Collaboration (Beta) Removed: This feature has been removed to better focus on future improvements.

Bug Fixes:

Zea Parts

Peformance and Freedback: Improved performance and feedback when syncing spreadsheets in older workspaces.

Zea Illustrations

Group pivot: Enable picking the Group pivot in the TreeView. Previously this was only possible in the viewport and often the preferred pivot is not directly visible.

Admin Editors: Enable Admin users to edit illustrations, even if they don't have 'editor' right.

Framing on a Group: The Viewport can now be framed on a selected Group.

Group Edits: fixed bug causing incorrect translation after moving an item within a kinematic group.

3D Models

Reference Resolution: Fixed bug where assemblies would not be able to load sub-parts or assemblies if the relative path started with a “../”

July 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Desktop

Junction Support: Zea Sync can now scan local folders with directory junctions on Windows, allowing it to pick up files from linked directories.

Platform

Enhanced Deletion Process: Users must delete all Organizations before deleting their account. Likewise, users must delete all Workspaces and cancel all subscriptions before deleting an Organization.

June 27, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Streamlined Public/Private Field Workflow: Public fields in Zea Sync are now displayed in the catalog, while private fields are not. The extra step of choosing visible fields in the Zea Parts settings is removed.

⁠

Changing quantity to 0 now removes an item from the shopping cart.

Added the number of ‘Sellable’ parts to the Workspace dashboard.

Zea Illustrations

Incremental Views Animation out of Beta: Incremental views animation is now the default system for new Zea Illustration projects. This traditional animation system allows view changes to accumulate, affecting all subsequent views until another change is introduced.

‘Viewer’ role can now view read-only illustrations.

3D Models

Shortened URLs.

Desktop

Improved handling of CAD files with large amounts of metadata.

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Fixed an issue where settings became unresponsive after clicking the Upgrade button.

Fixed an issue that caused resending an invite to an organization to change a user’s role from Admin to Standard.

Addressed inconsistencies in UI resizing when the browser window is adjusted.

Enhanced the visibility of loading bars in 3D viewports.

Zea Parts

Fixed an issue where clearing and reimporting serial numbers created duplicates.

Fixed an issue where results remained in the part lists search after clearing service parts.

Resolved an issue where unpublished catalogs could be accessed via URL.

Desktop

Fixed a display issue where files appeared as ‘modified’ in Zea Sync after correctly syncing metadata filter changes.

May 29, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Try Zea Parts for Free: Zea Parts is now available for everyone to try in every workspace. Users can explore all features to create an interactive 3D parts catalog, preview results, and request quotes. The only restriction is that catalog publishing is disabled until you purchase.

⁠

Read the documentation⁠

to learn how to set up your first parts catalog.

Preview a catalog from the ‘Publish’ tab in the Zea Parts Settings.

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Thumbnails: Thumbnails are now displayed in the shopping cart and quote emails. To set this up, go to Zea Parts Settings and generate views on the Views tab.

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Number fields: Fields containing numbers with currency symbols and commas are now correctly imported as numerical values, with the extra symbols automatically removed.

Zea Illustrations

Dope Sheet: Enhanced pasting functionality, allowing users to paste copied keyframes into multiple cells, and cut and paste single keyframes.

Desktop

Template Excel Files: Download template spreadsheets in Zea Sync for Master Parts List, Service Bill of Material (SBOM), and Serial Numbers. They can also be found in the

Zea Parts documentation⁠

⁠

ZIP files now include the version number for easier reference.

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Minor UI and usability improvements.

Zea Parts

Resolved an issue where users had to manually select a language in Admin view if the only processed language was not English.

Desktop

Resolved a problem that could cause Zea Sync to fail when processing files with many metadata fields.

Fixed the "Windows protected your PC" and "Do you want to allow this app from an unknown publisher to make changes to your device?" warnings when installing Zea Sync MSI or running Zea Sync ZIP. We've signed the files with a verified certificate to prevent these security alerts.

Fixed an issue where changing metadata filters in Zea Sync would not mark the files as ‘ready to process again’.

Minor UI and usability improvements.

May 10, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Parts

Resolved an issue causing the BOM to sometimes display duplicate parts multiple times.

3D Models

Corrected an issue that led to improper positioning of parts in certain SolidEdge assemblies.

May 7, 2024

Issue Fixed: Blank Page After Logging into Zea Sync

The issue where some users encountered a blank page after logging into Zea Sync v1.7.1 has been resolved. If you still see this issue, please download the latest version from

https://app.zea.live/download⁠

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Numerical Fields: Users can now choose between numerical and string types for fields when syncing SBOMs and Master Parts Lists in Zea Sync. This feature allows for pricing to be displayed in published catalogs.

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Numerical fields will automatically total when items are added to the shopping cart.

Improved Navigation: Users can now frame both selected parts and the root assembly from the toolbar and the right-click context menu in published catalogs.

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Excluding Duplicate Parts: When importing a BOM as a Master Parts List, any duplicate parts are automatically excluded.

Desktop

Metadata Filter: A new filter is available in the 3D Settings of Zea Sync, allowing users to exclude certain metadata fields during CAD processing.

Expanded File Format Support: Support has been added for STL, OBJ, WRL, FBX, and GLB file formats. View the

full list⁠

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Users on Safari and iOS devices can now log into the Zea Platform and Zea Sync without issues.

Updating the profile image on Zea accounts created with a Google account now correctly reflects across the platform.

Zea Parts

Enhanced selection logic for non-sellable parts in 3D, preventing unintended parent assembly selection. Previously, if a BOM or Master Parts Lists with many missing part was synced, clicking on those parts would select the parent assembly.

The BOM panel in published catalogs can now be resized on touch devices.

Resolved an issue where resizing the BOM panel in admin view would also affect the published view, and vice versa.

Implemented minor UI improvements in the admin view.

Addressed a display issue where the quantity in the BOM showed incorrect values temporarily.

Illustrations

Fixed minor errors that occurred in the real-time collaboration beta feature when creating views and joining sessions.

Desktop

Zea Sync now prompts users to download new versions when available. The update process is as follows:

Download the new MSI or ZIP from

https://app.zea.live/download⁠

⁠

Completely close Zea Sync, including from the system tray

⁠

Install or run the new version

Workspaces are now ordered the same on the platform and Zea Sync.

April 17, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Engine

Fixed an issue where CAD metadata fields named ‘color’ were being mistaken as actual color values.

April 11, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Platform

Strengthened Admin Permissions: Only admins have the privilege to modify Zea Parts settings on the platform, and access 3D Models and Zea Parts setup in Zea Sync.

Zea Parts

Domains Whitelist: You can now specify which domains are allowed to display your parts catalogs, blocking unauthorized domains. This feature is found under the Publish tab in Zea Parts Settings.

⁠

Context Menu: A new right-click option enables quick hiding or showing of parts.

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Parts can be added to the shopping cart from the toolbar, even when the BOM is minimized.

Default metadata fields have been removed from the Zea Parts settings.

We've made the mapping of Parts Lists and Serial Numbers more intuitive in Zea Sync, closely matching the SBOMs workflow.

Importing large Parts Lists, with tens-of-thousands of parts, is now faster.

Zea Illustrations

Dope Sheet: Previously a Beta Feature, the Dope Sheet has been fully released. The Dope Sheet allows keyframes to be managed in a single place for improved animation control.

⁠

Callouts and Shapes have been added to the Dope Sheet.

Incremental Views Animation (Beta): This new feature offers a traditional animation system, where view changes accumulate, affecting all subsequent views until another change is introduced. Available for new illustration projects with the beta feature activated.

WebXR (Beta): VR users can now explore illustrations in VR directly through the browser.

Beta Features can be activated in Illustration Settings.

⁠

Group Highlighting: Highlights can be added to groups and animated between views. Accessible from the Inspector panel when a group is selected

⁠

3D Models:

Models can now be inspected via a new context menu without the need for initial loading.

⁠

Desktop:

Zea Sync will now automatically display SolidWorks assemblies using cached data, but only if the main assembly is uploaded without its parts and the file has cached data available. This feature acts as a backup to ensure a complete assemblies in specific situations.

A new dropdown menu replaces manual entry for setting tessellation precision, ranging from Extra Low to Extra High.

⁠

Tessellation Precision and File Filter settings have been simplified and are now solely available in Zea Sync because they require reprocessing of 3D Models.

Overall reliability in processing SolidWorks files has been improved.

Bug Fixes:

Zea Parts:

The parts catalog now offers a smoother experience on touch devices.

The workspace dashboard now accurately updates after clearing service parts.

An issues preventing serial number searches due to leading spaces in the spreadsheet has been resolved.

Fixed an issue where hidden parts were incorrectly displayed as visible in the BOM when using the isolate tool.

Zea Illustrations:

Resolved an issue where models would temporarily disappear when adding new views.

Addressed an error when pasting multiple keyframes into a single cell.

3D Models:

Corrected an issue that caused ‘Assembly Features’ to display in the model tree.

Desktop:

Fixed a problem where mapping fields would clear out during rapid setup.

Resolved an issue where deleted workspaces were still showing in Zea Sync.

March 15, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

A minor update has improved a previously released feature. Non-sellable part are now not displayed in the BOM, but can still be selected and hidden in 3D for improved model exploration.

Bug Fixes:

Zea Sync

Fixed an error that occurred while loading the Parts List.

Resolved an issue related to mapping when empty spaces were detected in imported Spreadsheet cells.

3D Models

Addressed problems related to saving applied materials.

March 14, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Zea Parts now allows users to provide SBOMs for their products, enabling more control over the structure and content of the SBOM. Non-3D items such as consumables (oils, tape) can be shown in the BOM alongside the parts associated with CAD.

Users can target a folder, and all BOMs within that folder will be matched to processed CAD models.

⁠

Improved previewing a part from the shopping cart or quote emails to open the full assembly in a new tab. If a part was added individually, only that part will be displayed.

Updated the Zea Parts user interface for both admin and public views. Enhancements include the ability to show/collapse the BOM, a new visibility toolbar, and a button to open selected parts in a new tab.

Parts lacking CAD data have a different colored background BOM.

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Non-sellable parts without sellable children are now visible in the BOM. This allows non-sellable parts such as the body of a vehicle to be selected and hidden to easily expose the parts beneath it.

Note: Dummy part number can be added to the ‘Part Number’ column and the real part number in the ‘Engineering Part Number’ column to censor sensitive part numbers.

Introduced a feature to generate views for parts, either in bulk from the settings or manually by positioning parts and saving views. These views can create pre-defined positioning for published parts. The thumbnails are used to populate parts pages in e-commerce platforms like Shopify.

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3D Models:

Edited 3D models can now be explicitly saved for use in Zea Parts and Zea Illustrations. This includes hiding/transforming geometries, saving material edits, and a Manage Edits dialog for viewing and resetting edits.

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Added a feature to open a selected model in a new tab while inspecting a model.

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Desktop:

Made the filtering feature more robust. Previously, files that were filtered after processing CAD were hidden. Now, filtered files will be marked for deletion in Zea Sync and processing again will permanently remove them from the database.

Added information in 3D Models advanced settings about clearing unnecessary temporary files generated during processing CAD data.

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Bug Fixes:

Platform:

Fixed an issue where Editors upgraded to Admins appeared twice on the Workspace Users settings page.

Addressed a problem where quickly double-clicking the next button during onboarding led to a blank page.

Zea Parts:

Corrected an issue where empty header rows were omitted when importing a parts list.

February 7, 2024

Bug Fixes:

3D Models

Resolved an issue where file filters were not being properly applied.

Zea Illustrations

Addressed a problem that resulted in published illustrations appearing blank.

February 6, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Platform

Introduced email and password login and sign-up options, including for Zea Sync.

Existing users who registered via the passwordless method can now set a password through the "Forgot password" option.

Rebranded Parts Hub and Illustrations Hub to Zea Parts and Zea Illustrations, respectively.

Improved caching to enhance the performance and stability of the Zea platform.

Zea Parts

Added customization for the text labels of the “Serial Number” and “Parts Number” search options.

Introduced a “Mailing Address” field to the shopping cart.

Changed PDF previews to open in a new tab instead of being downloaded directly.

3D Models

Updated the tree view and inspector to display the ‘occurrence’ node rather than the ‘reference’ node.

Local transforms are now displayed in the inspector instead of global transforms.

Simplified nodes in the tree from “reference(occurrence)” to “occurrence”.

The root assembly is now presented as a single node.

Restored the functionality to translate parts and assemblies temporarily while inspecting 3D Models, without affecting the models platform-wide.

Zea Illustrations

Implemented the ‘occurrence’ node changes mentioned above.

Desktop

Zea Sync is now available for download as a .ZIP file, which can be extracted and run without requiring administrative rights.

The .ZIP and .MSI can be downloaded from

app.zea.live/download⁠

⁠

Restored the display of the version number in the Zea Sync header.

Introduced the ability to bulk paste file filters into the 3D Models settings page.

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Resolved an issue preventing the opening of context menus in the Version History of Zea Illustrations and in pending invitations within Organization Settings.

Zea Parts

Addressed a bug that caused the "hide header" URL parameter to not work.

December 22, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

Parts Hub

A new feature is now available for matching part numbers to CAD files by specifying a metadata field alongside the filename.

Non-sellable parts without sellable children can be hidden from the SBOM.

Platform

The platform now supports searching CAD files using metadata. Please note that existing files will need to be reprocessed using Zea Sync to extract the metadata.

Bug Fixes:

Parts Hub

Fixed an issue where searching for a serial number would take you back to the search page.

The problem of dashboard statistics not updating after syncing a parts list has been resolved.

When no matches are found in the SBOM search, a message indicating no results will now be displayed.

December 20, 2024

Notes:

New Features/Enhancements:

November 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

July 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

June 27, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

May 29, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

New Features/Enhancements:

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

March 15, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

March 14, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

December 22, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

November 16, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

November 3, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

October 19, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

September 28, 2023

New Features/Enhancements:

Bug Fixes:

September 5, 2023

Introducing Real-Time Collaboration (Beta)

Callout and Shape Materials

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.

Release Notes

December 20, 2024

Notes:

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Desktop

November 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Desktop

Zea Illustrations

Bug Fixes:

Zea Parts

Zea Illustrations

3D Models

July 24, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Desktop

Platform

June 27, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Zea Illustrations

3D Models

Desktop

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Zea Parts

Desktop

May 29, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Zea Illustrations

Desktop

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Zea Parts

Desktop

May 10, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Parts

3D Models

May 7, 2024

Issue Fixed: Blank Page After Logging into Zea Sync

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Desktop

Bug Fixes:

Platform

Zea Parts

Illustrations

Desktop

April 17, 2024

Bug Fixes:

Engine

April 11, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Platform

Zea Parts

Zea Illustrations

3D Models:

Desktop:

Bug Fixes:

Zea Parts:

Zea Illustrations:

3D Models:

Desktop:

March 15, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

Bug Fixes:

Zea Sync

3D Models

March 14, 2024

New Features/Enhancements:

Zea Parts

3D Models:

Desktop:

Bug Fixes:

Platform: