Replacing a document

Replacing a document is the same as copying a document except that a reference is made to the original document so that you can easily locate the origin of the replacement document. The Status of the original document is changed to Retired and it may not be revised again unless it is unretired. The revision number of the replacement document is also incremented. You may create replacement documents only from existing released documents.

Note    Unlike a new revision (created by a document workflow) in which references to its source document are updated to refer to the new revision, references to the source of a replacement document are not updated to refer to the replacement document. This can be important if you need to maintain the existing configuration of references between assemblies, subassemblies, and parts. The difference between the Derive Document and Replace Document commands is that derived documents are not retired but replaced documents are retired and may not be revised again unless they are unretired.

For a comparison of the various copy commands, see Understanding the copy commands.

To replace a document:

1. Select the document you want to replace.
2. On the Edit menu, select Replace Document. If the document type of the original document has been configured to show property pages for the Replace Document command, the pages are shown with the original document’s property values as defaults.
3. If necessary, type or change property values for the replacement document and click OK. A replacement document is created in the current folder with the same file content as the original document.

If the document type is not configured to calculate the file name, the file name of the replacement document is set to Copy of <Originalfile name>. Otherwise, the replacement receives a newly calculated file name.

A reference is made from the original document to the replacement document with the reference type Replaced By. To view the reference, see Viewing references.

If the document type is configured to use a document type workflow, the new document may be automatically placed under change to you.

Note    The Replace Document and Create New Version commands perform the same actions. Use the command whose name best matches your engineering change process.

Note    When you open a document in Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, MicroStation, or SolidWorks and the document has references to other documents that have been replaced with the Replace Document command, you will be prompted to update the document to refer the replacements. The appropriate Meridian application link must be installed.