Reusing a Managed Output Job Item

Parent article: Releasing an Output Job File to an Altium Vault

Once an Output Job file has been released to an Altium Vault, and its lifecycle state set to a level that the organization views as ready for use at the design level, that OutJob can be reused in future board-level design projects.

A released Output Job Item can be reused manually, or as part of centralized enforcement of a designer's working environment. The latter sees the OutJob used as a configuration data item in one or more defined Environment Configurations. Under a concept referred to as Environment Configuration Management, Altium Designer uses the configuration data items specified in an applied environment configuration to configure the relevant areas of the application environment – resulting in the designer only being able to use those environmental elements they are entitled to use, in relation to their assigned role(s) within the organization.

This article takes a look at reuse of a released (managed) Output Job Item, from both manual and applied environment configuration perspectives.

Manual Reuse

The ability to freely (and manually) browse a target Altium Vault and choose a vault-based (managed) Output Job Item to be used for your design project, depends on whether the Team Configuration Center service is available to a user when signing in to the Altium Vault. Use of the configuration management feature requires the following licensing:

• Enterprise-level Server License for the Altium Vault, making the Team Configuration Service available to the organization.
• Enterprise-level Client Access License, making the Team Configuration Service available to a user within that organization, when they connect to the Altium Vault.

If available, the Center determines the environment configuration(s) that can validly be used, and changes the relevant areas of the Altium Designer environment to enforce the permitted data elements of the chosen configuration. The ability to manually reuse vault-based OutJobs then depends on the chosen environment configuration:

• If the chosen environment configuration has one or more defined Output Job Items, then only those defined OutJobs can be used. In other words, manual reuse of a vault-based OutJob is not possible/permitted.
• If the chosen environment configuration does not have any Output Job Items specified/added, then these will remain manually definable by the user. In other words, you are free to manually reuse a vault-based OutJob.

Choose a managed OutJob to use from the Managed OutputJobs tab of the Project Options dialog. Simply click the Add button and use the subsequent Choose Managed OutputJob Revision dialog to browse to, and select, the required OutJob in the connected Altium Vault. The region will populate with details for the chosen Item Revision, including its lifecycle state.

Manually choosing a vault-based Output Job Item from within the Managed OutputJobs tab of the Project Options dialog.

Continue adding further managed OutJobs as required. After clicking OK to exit the Project Options dialog, save the project and recompile – the chosen managed OutJob(s) will appear in the Projects panel.

A managed OutJob is distinguished by the  icon.

The added OutJobs will be reflected in the Projects panel after the project is saved and recompiled.

Reuse as Part of an Environment Configuration

Once you have signed in to the Altium Vault, and chosen (if applicable) from the selection of environment configurations available to you, Altium Designer will be configured, with respect to use of Output Jobs, in the following areas.

Project Options dialog

Output Job Items are specified for use from the Managed OutputJobs tab of the Project Options dialog, in much the same way when reusing them manually. The difference with their use under management of an environment configuration is that you can only add those Output Job Items defined for that environment configuration.

Simply click the Add button – the Select configuration item (Output Jobs) dialog will appear. Use this dialog to choose which OutJob to use for the project, from the list of OutJobs defined as part of the environment configuration currently in-force. Add additional OutJobs – available to you – as required.

Choose from the environment configuration's defined Output Job Items, when adding OutJobs to a project.

With all OutJobs added as required, OK out of the Project Options dialog, save the project and recompile – the chosen managed OutJob(s) will appear in the Projects panel.

Save and recompile the project to have the Managed OutJob(s) appear in the Projects panel.

Creating a New OutJob File

Under configuration management, and when at least one OutJob is defined for the active environment configuration, this will no longer be possible. Commands for creating a new OutJob – either using the File » New » Output Job File command, or right-clicking on a project's entry in the Projects panel and choosing Add New to Project » Output Job File, will be hidden.

Trying to use an Existing OutJob File

Under configuration management, and when at least one OutJob is defined for the active environment configuration, this will no longer be possible. If you attempt to add an existing Output Job File to the project, by right-clicking on a project's entry in the Projects panel, choosing Add Existing to Project, and browsing for that file, a warning dialog will appear – alerting you to the fact that OutJobs are being managed by that environment configuration.

OutputJob Editor

The OutputJob Editor – accessed when opening a managed OutJob – will reflect that the file is a Managed OutputJob Document, with an indication of the Item Revision, its description, and the parent Altium Vault in which that Item resides.

The Output Job Editor when viewing a managed Output Job.

Since the OutJob is managed, any controls that would otherwise effect its modification in some way, are disabled. So the following abilities ARE NOT available:

• Addition of new Output Generators.
• Configuration of existing Output Generators.
• Cut, copy, paste, duplication or deletion of an existing Output Generator.
• Addition of new Output Containers or Hard Copy Jobs.
• Configuration of an existing Output Container or Hard Copy Job.
• Cut, copy, paste or deletion of existing Output Containers or Hard Copy Jobs.
• Toggle the inclusion state of an Output Generator with respect to a valid Output Container or Hard Copy Job.

You can, however, still determine variant usage for the OutJob.