The difference between owned and referenced documents is as follows:
- Owned documents
-
When you create a document from the
Content page of a simulation process or
simulation activity, the document is owned by the simulation process or
simulation activity.
When you perform a PLM operation on a simulation process (or
simulation activity), the same operation is applied to a document that is owned
by the simulation process (or activity). For example, if you copy a simulation
process, the new process contains copies of any owned documents and the copied
documents are owned by the new process.
- Referenced documents
-
When you add referenced content, you are referencing a document
that already exists.
A reference to a document can be thought of as a link to a
document. Operations on a simulation process or simulation activity do not
change the references to a document. For example, if you copy a simulation
process, the new process continues to refer to any referenced documents.
If you have a document stored in a simulation process, you can use
the document in an unrelated simulation activity by referring to the document
in the simulation process. This allows multiple, unrelated activities to share
a document inside a simulation process. You can create a download rule in a
simulation activity that moves a referenced document from a simulation process
to the working directory. (Similarly, you can create a download rule in a
simulation activity that moves a referenced simulation folder from a simulation
process to the working directory; however, the simulation process must be the
parent of the simulation activity that is executing the rule.)
You should create referenced documents for data that will not
change often and that will be shared across simulation processes and simulation
activities; for example, data that are used to define material properties.