Drag-and-drop is a convenient and easy way to add small quantities of files to a vault. For larger quantities, see Document Import Tool. To import documents with PowerWeb, see Upload Documents.
After files have been imported to a vault, document properties that were not explicitly set during the import (from title blocks, default property assignments, and so on) contain no values. Those properties will not be synchronized to the imported content files by the Meridian application links. This is by design to prevent overwriting existing values.
The properties can be synchronized from the imported content files. Such properties must be set in the vault to an explicit value at least once before the properties will be synchronized to the content files.
Additional Notes about Functionality
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If the vault is configured to use the same document type for all Autodesk Inventor assembly files (.iam, .idv,.ipt,.idw,.ipn), all of the files will become one hybrid document if you drop them at the same time into the vault. Instead, first drop those files that you do not want to be part of the hybrid document (.ipt,.idw, and .ipn), and then drop the assembly (.iam and .idv) files.
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Importing files with external references in this way will not create Meridian references.
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The document type that is assigned to imported documents is determined by the following precedence:
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Document type assigned to the file extension.
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Default document type of the active vault if available in the active scope.
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Default document type assigned to the active scope.
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Drag and drop also works to export documents from Meridian to Windows Explorer or your desktop.
PowerWeb Procedures
Use these steps for PowerWeb.
The behavior of PowerUser and PowerWeb differ in a small number of ways and this is one of them. Some document types that are allowed to be imported using drag and drop in PowerUser might not be allowed to be imported in the same way in PowerWeb depending on the Document type availability setting in the configuration of the document type. For assistance with this issue, consult with a System Administrator.
To import using drag and drop:
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Open the folder where you want to import the documents.
If you want to import the files to an existing document, select it.
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Drag the files from Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or your desktop onto the PowerWeb window and drop them.
If the selected document is locked or read-only, a dialog box appears for you to select an action.
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Choose between three options:
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Select an import action from the dialog box that appears.
The available actions depend on the selected document, the number of files dropped, and their file extensions.
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In the New ribbon, in the Documents group, click Import Documents.
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Right-click any folder, point to Folder, and click Import Documents.
The Import Documents dialog box appears.
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Choose between two options:
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To select more files to import, drag the files onto the file list and drop them.
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To select the files to import using a file browser:
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Click Add.
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Select the files to upload.
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Click Open.
The file names are added to the file list.
Select a file and click Remove to remove it from the list.
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If you also want to create Meridian references between the files that have external references, enable Synchronize References from Files.
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If the current view is not the Folders view, the Import Document/Select Folder dialog box appears.
If necessary, select a different folder in the Folders view where you want the imported document to reside.
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Click Next.
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If a page appears prompting you to select a document type for the files that you uploaded, select one from Document type and click Next.
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If any property pages appear for the documents you are importing, type any known values in the property pages and click Finish when you are finished.
A progress dialog box shows the results while the files are imported. The files are uploaded to the selected folder or, if their location is controlled by the vault's Field-Path definition, they are created in the appropriate folders.
PowerUser Procedures
Use these steps for PowerUser.
To import using drag and drop:
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Open the vault folder that will be the destination of the documents.
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Select the files that you want to import from Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or your desktop.
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Drag and drop them onto the destination folder or onto any document in the destination folder.
If you selected only one document and dropped it onto an existing document, a shortcut menu appears:
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Select As New Revision to import the file as a new revision of the document upon which you dropped it.
This command is only available if the vault document is released.
Because this action will create a new revision and the document is in a released state, this command must be customized to place the document in the correct state of a workflow according to your organization's business process for this action. If the command is not customized, an Access is denied error will result and the action will fail.
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Select Replace Document Content to overwrite the vault document's content with the file.
The file extension is updated if it is different. This command is only available if the vault document is under change in a workflow.
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Select As New Document to import the file as a new document in the selected folder.
Meridian then detects the file extension of each dropped file that will become a new document in the vault and finds the document types associated with the file extension. If a file extension is associated with more than one document type, a dialog box listing the associated document types appears.
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Select the document type you want applied to the imported document.
If a scope is active, document types that are not enabled for that scope will not appear for selection.
If the document type is configured to support hybrid documents and you are importing multiple files with the same name but different extensions, the files are imported as main parts and attached parts depending on the file extensions. If a default file extension for renditions is configured and documents with the same names but different extensions exist in the vault, the files are attached as renditions of the vault documents.
If the document type of the first imported file has property pages associated with it, they will appear next for you to type any known information.
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If you want to apply the same information to all of the imported documents that have the same document type, select Apply for all other documents of this type.
The default values of custom properties are the names of the corresponding folders in the path where the documents are created. However, if files are dropped on a subfolder of the selected folder, the values may be incorrect.
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Complete each property page and click Next or Finish.
Property pages then appear for each of the remaining imported files, in turn, unless you selected Apply for all other documents of this type.
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Complete each property page and click Next or Finish.
A progress dialog box shows the status of the overall import process until all of the files are imported. Meridian creates new documents for each of the imported files and places them in the current folder or in the folder calculated by the Field-Path definition of the vault configuration.
If the document types of the imported files perform automatic document naming, Meridian assigns a calculated name to each new document. If not, a default document name is assigned that you may overwrite with any name you want.
