Sequences: Revision

Collection Explorer ◢ General group ◢ Sequences: Revision collection

Purpose §

Defines the technical revision format for documents and parts.

Where used §

Documents, parts

Data fields §

General §

Name §

This is the complete name for the revision sequence.

Description §

This gives the revision sequence and its use.

Starting revision §

This is given to a new item's revision. The Starting revision value never changes; instead, subsequent revisions of the item are incremented based on the previous revision's value and the sequence rules, such as invalid characters.

You specify both the revision sequence's format and the value. The format is determined by the location and type of character (letter, number or symbol) that you enter. If you enter a numeric digit at a specified location, then all subsequent values use only a numeric digit at that location. Likewise, a letter at a particular location ensures that only letters are used when the identifier is incremented. Non-alphanumeric characters (e.g., "/" or "-") are ignored when the value is incremented.

Example: If you've specified A.01 as the Starting revision value, then the next item iteration is given as A.02. The revision immediately following A.99 is B.00.

If no alphanumeric characters are specified, then the item's initial iteration is given the starting revision value. Any subsequent revisions are alphabetic.

Example: If the Starting revision value is specified as a hyphen -, then the next item iteration would be A.

Skip characters §

You can also specify which characters are not considered when a Starting revision value is incremented. Since these characters are only examined when the sequence increments, you can (for instance) use a skip character as the initial value for a revision and it will never be used in a subsequent revision.

Enter the exact characters to be skipped, without a space, quote or other delimiter: IOSQXZ.

Example: If the letters IOSZ are invalid, then an item with revision H is incremented to new revision J.

Skip characters are applied to single-character revisions only.

If your company mixes letters and numbers in the same sequence (not a best practice), then the letters BIOQSZ are good candidates to be skipped since, in some typefaces or handwritten notes, they are difficult to distinguish from numbers.

Active: users can select
Default member of collection
Permanent member of collection §

See the Managing collections: Common attributes help topic.

Where Used list §

This list enumerates all of the document and part types that are using the revision sequence.

Setup §

Alphabetic characters have traditionally been used for revisions. Although most items won't require more than 20 revisions, you may want to specify a double-letter revision sequence starting at "AA". This offers almost 700 revisions for those particularly long-lived items, and specifying the number of revision characters up front means your users will never have to worry whether the item is truly at Revision B, instead of an accidentally truncated Revision BC.

Numeric revisions are a more recent, and often superior, practice. They do not require skip characters, and are far more accessible on computer keyboards for all languages. It's better to not use 0 as the first character in the Starting revision: Microsoft Excel often silently deletes leading zeroes, for example, revision 02 becomes 2.

The sequence generator doesn't try to enforce the rule. You can edit the suggested revision using a skip character or different number of characters.

Although you can modify a sequence after it's been in use, you should exercise caution as it will affect all new items, as well as all existing items, that rely on that sequence.

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