Understanding the iCS for PDF “Output Destination Folder” rendition component Create Version/Overwrite options

When creating Rendition Profiles for use with Bentley i-model Composition Server for PDF, the user has the option to create versions or overwrite existing output documents when creating a rendition.  These options are set in the Output Destination Folders component of the Rendition Profile. 

To access these options, go to the data source in ProjectWise Administrator.  Look under Renditions – Rendition Profile Components – Output Destination Folders.  The following dialog shows the options section of this component:

When creating versions or overwriting the destination documents, it is important to note that these options only make sense in the context of destination document names that have the same file name.  The destination document name is specified in the Output File Naming Conventions rendition profile component in ProjectWise Administrator. 

There are four option combinations possible:

• Overwrite file – Delete Existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate not enabled

This combination will replace the contents of the active document in the destination folder with the same file name.  This means that even though the source document may have versions, the destination document will replace only the last version of the destination document if versions exist in the destination folder. 

• Overwrite file – Delete Existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate enabled

This combination will overwrite every document and will result in one destination document for each group of source documents with the same name. 

• Create new version of file – Delete Existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate not enabled

This combination will create a new set of versions each time resulting in multiple sets of incremental destination documents.  In the case where Create new version of file is enabled only, destination documents are written to the destination folder and if documents exist with the same name, a new version of the document will be created.  When creating new versions, all ProjectWise documents should have a version string.  If any of the destination documents fail to render, none of the versions will be distributed.  This is to ensure that the destination documents will not be out of sync. 

• Create new version of file – Delete Existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate enabled

This combination will clear out all versions and leave one set of versions based on the source documents.  There will be a one to one mapping of source documents to destination documents. 

Consider the following example workflows:

Workflow A: The CAD designer does not use versions of the source design document, but consumers of the distributed documents (PDFs in this case) do want to see the history.  The source documents contain four different design documents with no versions.

In this workflow, you would want to select Create new version of file and disable Delete existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate.  If you create renditions with all four documents selected, every time the rendition command is executed, a new set of four documents will be distributed without ever deleting any of them.  The following picture shows the job was rendered two times.

Workflow B: The CAD designer does use versions of the source document, but the consumers of the distributed documents (PDFs in this case) do not need versions.  They are interested only in the final product.  The source documents contain four different design documents with one version of each.

 

In this workflow, you would want to select Overwrite file and disable Delete existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate.  If you create renditions with all eight source documents selected (each dgn and its matching version), every time the rendition command is executed, one single PDF will be distributed for each source document containing the data from the last active version of the source document.  The following picture shows the job was rendered two times.

 

Workflow C: Both the CAD designer and the consumers of the distributed destination documents (PDFs in this case) want to maintain versions of their work.  Each source document including versions should have a matching destination PDF.  The source documents contain four different design documents with one version of each.

 

In this workflow, you would want to select Create new version of file and enable Delete existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate.  This workflow will delete any existing versions and create a new version tree where each destination PDF document correlates with the matching source design document.  The following picture shows the job was rendered two times.  Notice that after the rendition command was executed two times, the result includes only one set of destination documents unlike the case where Delete existing duplicate files and versions when appropriate is not enabled.

For more detailed information regarding this feature, see the ProjectWise Administrator V8i (SELECTseries 4) Help under Rendition Administration.