Meridian

Manage Engineering Data

Engineering data can be stored in the secure Meridian repository in various ways. Meridian provides options to create new documents through the wizard, but documents can also be saved from within the (CAD) applications, by Batch import (including entire Assemblies and older revisions) or through drag and drop. In all cases the Wizard guides proper storage through the properties to be filled in. The properties can be mandatory, optional, automatically generated, have (dependent) look-up lists and can be calculated through scripting. Properties can be shown in the document (in headers, footers or title blocks) and automatically, bi-directionally or manually synchronised with the repository.

Secure Access

Access to Meridian is provided through Windows authentication, utilising your existing Windows Users and User Groups. Role-based security determines user privileges in relation to edit, view or print. Content can be worked on by only one person at a time, while the previous version of the document is still available, although locked. Depending on the configuration of the Meridian environment, this can be controlled so that certain groups of users are restricted to document renditions (PDF).

Search & Retrieve

Meridian provides various ways to find the data required, such as full-text search, quick find, key find and extended search for documents or folders within or across repositories. In addition, user-specific views (Navigation Views) can be created showing a filtered subset of the repository for specific groups or activities, such as to-do lists. On a repository level, a selection can be provided as a Scope, like “Projects” Scope, holding only the active change projects where restricted access and specific Navigation views can be applied.

CAD Application Integration

Next to generic integration with MS Office applications, Meridian supports integration with multiple CAD applications, including AutoCAD, MicroStation, Inventor, SolidWorks, and Revit. CAD integration includes automatic and manual Reference Management, Xref support, Title block integration, and related features to show the assembly structure, highlight where certain parts are used, copy files with references or index CAD files for full-text search.

Rendition Support

Meridian provides rendition support for all engineering data, including files with XRef’s, Hybrids and Assemblies. By using the Meridian Publisher, native files are rendered to PDF and stored as a file associated with the same document. Depending on the configuration of the Meridian environment, certain groups of users can be restricted to renditions of the document or can have access to work with both the native and the rendition.

View Content

Within Meridian, each document has a thumbnail for quick recognition. Documents can also be viewed in more detail through the embedded viewer, which allows viewing of over 200 different file formats including CAD, Office, PDF and Raster formats without needing the native application. The viewer can be deployed by local installation or by use of a central server (server based viewing). Within the viewer many features are available, such as zoom, pan, magnify-glass, and print. For CAD files more specific options are available, including the Xrefs and Hybrids, Layers on/off, show Blocks and Measure design elements.

Redlining, Mark-up & Compare

For content review, the in-built PDFTron viewer provides PDF redline mark-up and compare capabilities. The redline layers are stored and managed by Meridian, and accessible to the organization for content update. Before making the redlines and mark-ups, the document version at hand can be compared with previous versions or even with other documents. While comparing, additions and deletions are shown and can be viewed independently.

Workflow and Revision Management

Meridian has configurable workflows to allow document review and approval to be completely tailored in line with your business processes. Initiating a workflow in Meridian automatically copies the current document to create a new, incremented revision. Upon completion of workflow, the document is in a released state and previous revisions are available within the complete document history for view, compare, audit or reversion.

Audit Trail

Workflow activities are stored in the history audit trail and at each workflow step the user can enter comments. The log is in a tabular format to support advanced reporting and auditing requirements.

Email Integration & Notification

Meridian provides four types of email integration within MS Outlook or Lotus Notes.

• Client side email storage, including storage of attachments
• Client side email creation, including the native or rendition as attachment
• Server side email storage, through the Meridian Email Manager
• Server side emails notification, to inform participants of workflow events through email. Pre-configured emails with document attachments or document links are sent to addressees selectable from pre-configured lists.