Revisions

A version is an iteration of a document and its meta-data that has been saved to the vault.

A revision is a collection of versions with a common label. This label usually represents a significant milestone in the work done to achieve a desired change. The revision is usually marked with a single character, such as A or B. A revision is created with the Revise command. Revisions can also be automatically generated through a Lifecycle State change.

When a revision is downloaded from a vault, only one version within that revision is used to represent the revision. If lifecycles are not used, then the version is always the latest within that revision.

When using documents that are related to each other, such as an assembly and its referenced components, a relationship is created between the specific revisions of those documents. When an assembly is checked into a vault, the revision of each of its components is recorded so that when that revision is recalled, each related document is retrieved using the recorded revision.

Editing a referenced file without creating a new revision

If a document references other files and those files are edited without bumping the revision, the referencing document will consume the edits. For example:

• Revision A of an assembly references revision B of a part.
• Changes are made to revision B of the part after revision A of the assembly has been checked in.
• The changes to revision B of the part will show in revision A of the assembly when it is next checked out.

Editing a referenced file after creating a new revision

If a document references other files and a new revision is created for one of those files, the referencing document still maintains a relationship with the original revision. For example:

• Revision A of an assembly references revision B of a part.
• A new revision of the part is created and labeled C.
• Edits are made to revision C of the part.
• The changes to revision C of the part will not show in revision A of the assembly when it is next opened from vault.

When a version within a revision is marked as released, it is given priority over newer versions and will represent the revision. This prioritization is known as a released bias and is an option that can be turned off in several of the dialogs.

Released biased is an option in several of the dialogs indicating that released data should take priority over non-released data. This option can be turned off.

The leading version, or tip version, is always the latest version of a file, even if Released Bias is enabled.

The leading revision , or tip revision, is always the latest version of the latest revision of a file, even if Released Bias is enabled.

When used in combination with lifecycles, revisions can be generated automatically after a predefined event occurs. For example, the administrator can configure it so that when a file is moved from a work in progress to review state, the system automatically creates a new revision of the file.

A quick change is an edit made to a file without creating a new revision. Quick changes are invoked by setting a document's state to Quick Change and then modifying the file.