The Structure of a Document

A document is a container (also called an object) within SmartPlant Foundation, to which one or more files can be attached.  A document is not a file.
A document consists of three (3) components:
Document Master - A container that holds, or contains a full history of the document.
Document Revision - A container within the Document Master that holds multiple versions.  Versions represent the history of changes applied to a document for that major release.
Document Version - A container within the Document Revision container, that holds 0 or more files representing the same document.
 
Two major classes of documents exist in SPF: authoring documents and published documents.
  • Authoring documents are documents not created by a SmartPlant design tool and have been uploaded directly to SPF.  Majority of project documents belong to this class, including items like schedules, minutes, and procedures, which are generally created in an MS Office application.
  • Published documents are documents uploaded into SPF using the built-in design tool operation called Publish.  
 
It may be difficult to know if a design document is classified as an authoring document or a published document.  For instance, some P&IDs may be created by SmartPlant P&ID, while others may be coming from a vendor who has provided a Microstation or .pdf rendition of the P&ID.  This should be considered when performing a document search.  Refer to Search for Documents .