Understanding document naming and location

Every vault document has a name and a location. Depending on the vault configuration, these may be controlled by the system. A document’s name may be controlled by its document type. A document’s location may be controlled by a feature of the vault configuration named the Field-Path definition.

A document type may implement automatic naming or it may not. If it implements automatic naming, you may or may not be able to type a document’s name when you create or import the document. The document type may calculate the document name automatically based on other information you select or type about the document at the time of document creation, such as project number, sheet number, title, and so on. The calculation may also include an incremental identification number. For example, specified the following naming convention:

<ProjectNumber><DocumentType><SheetNumber>

An automatically calculated document name might be: 2009Plan001. Automatic document naming ensures that documents are consistently named for easy retrieval and identification.

File systems can store documents in folders to give a logical structure for easier organization and retrieval. Meridian supports the same kind of logical structure through its Explorer view, but it takes the concept a step further with the Field-Path definition. The Field-Path definition is similar to the automatic naming convention described previously except that it applies to the vault’s folder structure. This means that the structure and names of the folders in the vault can be determined by information about the documents they contain. For example, specified a Field-Path definition that looks like this:

Projects\<ProjectStatus>\<ProjectName>\<SubprojectName>

The Field-Path definition might create the folder path:

Projects\In Design\WellBuilt Addition\Structural Framing

Each vault can implement a different Field-Path definition or none at all. If not, you can create its folder structure, just as in Windows Explorer.