Video Transcript
Welcome. This session covers document information in Adept — the idea that a document is really a bundle of several distinct layers of information, not just the file content itself. Understanding these layers makes it much easier to see how features like Search, FileGuide, Data Cards, and the Document Dashboard all fit together. Let's get started.
When most people think about a document, they think about the file content — a CAD drawing, a PDF, a Word document, a spreadsheet, an image. That's natural, because the file is what you open and look at. But in Adept, that's only one layer of the picture. Adept also stores and manages field-based metadata, full-text information, document relationships, history and lifecycle information, and extended information like notes and comments.
Here's the full picture — all six layers together, with examples and what each one is used for. File content is the drawing geometry or PDF text used for viewing and editing. Field-based metadata covers things like Document Number, Description, Project, Revision, and Status — used for identifying, organizing, and searching. Full-text information powers Full-Text Search, document relationships capture references between documents, history and lifecycle tracks versions and audit records, and extended information covers memo fields and comments that don't fit neatly into a standard field.
Field-based metadata is the type of document information most users encounter first. By definition, metadata is information stored about a document rather than the document content itself — and in Adept, that information lives in fields like Document Number, Description, Project, Revision, Status, and Author. These fields let users identify, organize, filter, and locate documents throughout the system, and they serve as the foundation for searches, document lists, workflows, and reporting. There's a companion deck that goes much deeper on fields specifically, but for now remember: this is the layer most people touch every day.
Not all document information lives in fields. Full-text information is content extracted directly from the file — a PDF specification might contain part numbers or technical requirements never entered into a field, and Full-Text Search can still find that document based on its content. Document relationships capture connections between documents, helping users understand how a change to one might ripple into others. History and lifecycle information tracks previous versions, version-level metadata, workflow status, and audit records, giving organizations traceability and control. And extended information covers memo fields and workflow comments — context that's valuable but doesn't fit neatly into a standard metadata field.
All six layers serve the same goal: helping users understand and manage documents. Take a single drawing as an example — a user might view its field values in a Data Card, search its contents using Full-Text Search, review related documents through its relationships, examine its revision history for traceability, and read additional notes stored in memo information. That's five different features, each drawing on a different layer of document information, all coming together to give a complete understanding of that one drawing. Once you see how these layers connect, features throughout Adept become much easier to understand, because they're all just different windows into the same underlying document information.
A document in Adept is really six layers, not just one file: file content, field-based metadata, full-text information, document relationships, history and lifecycle information, and extended information. Each of those layers powers a different feature — Data Cards, Full-Text Search, relationships, revision history, memo fields — and together they give a complete understanding of any document. Once you understand these six information types, the rest of Adept becomes much easier to learn, because every feature is really just a different window into this same underlying information. Thanks for joining this session.
