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  • INTRODUCING MERIDIAN 2022

    Shaun Mercer
    Technical Consultant - Electronic Content and Asset Management • Professional Services

    INTRODUCING MERIDIAN 2022

    MAJOR ENHANCEMENTS

    1. Installation Package provides New PowerWeb IIS Application
    2. Meridian E-Mail Manager Retired
    3. The Default Store Table Data Provider is now Microsoft Access
    4. Customizable PowerWeb JavaScript Modules
    5. Meridian Cloud Rendering Profiles

    MERIDIAN ENTERPRISE SERVER
    What is Meridian Enterprise Server?
    Meridian Enterprise Server is the core product in the Meridian Enterprise product suite. It provides centralized, scalable, web services and administration for use with Meridian Enterprise, Accruent Project Portal, and other business systems. Besides the shared services, Meridian Enterprise Server includes the latest generation of Publisher and Meridian Explorer technology.

    MERIDIAN POWERWEB
    What is PowerWeb?
    Meridian PowerWeb is a web application designed to create, modify, documents and data stored in Meridian. Power users include Engineering Managers, Project Managers, Engineers, Drafting Technicians and Document Management. PowerWeb implements your company’s document and data lifecycle business rules, including automatic document naming, document filing, managing complex AutoCAD and other native reference files including exchanging AutoCAD data with Office files, and other applications.
    PowerWeb is broken into several sub-sections

     

    CONCEPTFUNCTION
    APPLICATION INTEGRATIONApplication Integration: is provided by the Meridian Cloud Connector. The Meridian Cloud Connector can be downloaded and installed from the home page of the Meridian Cloud tenant. The Meridian Cloud Connector installs Site Cache with Local Workspace and provides application integration with MS Office, AutoCAD, and MicroStation applications.
    DOCUMENTSDocuments: in a Meridian Enterprise vault are like files in a file system. They are in folders where you can copy, rename, move, and delete them. However, vault documents differ from files in a file system.

     

    The fundamental difference between vault documents and ordinary files is that Meridian Enterprise distinguishes between a document and its contents. A document’s contents may be regarded as the file to which you are accustomed. Meridian Enterprise considers a document to be the file and its container (metadata properties). In Meridian, a document can exist without contents (for example, to represent a hard copy-only document), but contents cannot exist without a container.

    EDM PRINCIPLESEngineering data management (EDM): A generic term for a wide variety of functions. In general, it is the process of managing engineering documents throughout their life cycle, from inception through creation, review, storage, and distribution all the way to archiving or destruction. Depending on specific requirements, document management is different for every customer.
    HISTORYHistory: The Meridian history feature maintains all changes to vault data over time, including revisions to documents. History is enabled or cleared for each vault by a System Administrator.

     

    The last released revision of a document is always the default one shown in a vault. However, by using the Show Revisions command, you can see all previous revisions and their effective dates

    INDUSTRY-SPECIFICIndustry Specific: Certain industries present unique challenges in document management. When configuring Meridian Enterprise for these industries, consideration must be given to document workflow, revision control, and project workflow.
    NAVIGATION VIEWSNavigation Views: Navigation views are different ways of viewing a vault for different purposes. Each view displays documents organized in a hierarchical tree structure like Windows Explorer, like the following figure. The tree structure is determined by a predefined set of properties. You can use Navigation views to find and select documents according to the property values of the documents. Navigation views help you to find documents based on whatever information you know about the documents that you want to find.
    PROJECT WORKFLOWProject Workflow: The project workflow is a simple two-step workflow that defines the current state of the project. There are only two states available in a project workflow: Open and Closed.
    SCOPESScopes: Meridian manages a wide variety of documents and the information about them. Scopes are a way of limiting vault functionality and information to named sets that are easier to understand and use. You may select a scope that more closely meets your needs without experiencing information overload.

     

    A scope is used to control the visibility of commands, views, and documents in PowerWeb. By default, PowerWeb provides the following built-in scopes that each correspond to a branch in the vault structure.

    SEARCHSearch: It can find either documents or folders. It gives you complete flexibility of the search scope, properties, and conditions. Find can include referenced documents in its results and its results can be saved and shared with other users.
    VAULTSVaults: A vault is a combination of a Meridian database and a document store. It contains all the documents you place in the vault, the data about those documents, all revisions of those documents made in the vault, and redline data for the documents. If some of your documents use references to other documents, such as with CAD files, then those references between documents will automatically be managed by Meridian. This means that you can move files between folders within the Meridian vault (such as from one project to another), and the references will not be lost, because they are managed by Meridian.

    MERIDIAN EXPLORER

    What is Explorer Classic?

    Meridian Explorer provides an innovative way to browse and search for documents and tags stored in one or more vaults. The main benefits of Meridian Explorer are its powerful search, ease of use, extensive configurability, and scalability. You can easily navigate your way to the document you need and view its information with just a few mouse clicks.

    Meridian Explorer provides you with text search capability on both custom metadata properties and document text content. You can also find documents by navigating a folder tree. Best of all, you can search a repository interactively by selecting from specific property values found in the current search results. With this method, you can quickly narrow your search from potentially hundreds of thousands of documents to just the documents you are interested in. Search results are presented in tabular format or as easily recognizable thumbnail images.

    The Meridian Explorer Key Features Include:

    • Incremental synchronization of data, documents or assets and their related metadata from one or more Meridian Enterprise vaults to a Meridian Explorer consolidated repository.
    • Zero install, web browser-based read-only client. Management of change and engineering change requests.
    • Electronic redlines are available to be sent to vaults configured with the Meridian Asset Management Module.
    • Support for server-based viewing.
    • Configurable property pages, search pages, and views.

    What is Cloud Explorer?

    Cloud Explorer is a web application for searching and retrieving engineering information.

    Target users include Maintenance Managers, Planners, Engineers, Operations Managers, and Operators.

     

    Cloud Explorer allows you to easily locate data, documents or assets and see their related references within your browser. By default, when the Explorer is opened the Explorer Landing Page allows you to view all the data, documents, or assets in the repository, depending on which view is active, Documents or Assets.

    If Explorer was opened by another application such a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), you might be viewing only the items in the repository that are related to a document or asset in the other application.

    Only documents in the Master or Documentation scopes of a repository are available in Explorer. Data, Documents or Assets in a project or that are archived are not available to you. Filters are implemented to view the items that meet your required criteria.

    CONCEPTFUNCTION
    ASSETSAssets: By default, when Explorer is opened from the landing page, you can see all the assets in the repository, depending on which view is active, Assets. If Explorer was opened by another application such a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), you might be viewing only the items in the repository that are related to an asset in the other application.
    DOCUMENTSDocuments: Cloud Explorer lets you easily find documents and see their related counterparts right in your browser. By default, when you first open Explorer from the landing page, you can see all the documents in the repository, depending on which view is active, Documents. If Explorer was opened by another application such a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), you might be viewing only the items in the repository that are related to a document in the other application. Only documents in the Masters or Documentation scopes of a repository are available to you in Explorer. Documents in a project or that are archived are not available to you. You can use filters to see only the items that meet criteria that you determine.
    INTERGRATION URLSCreate Integration URLs: You can create dynamic URLs that link users to their asset documents in Explorer. This functionality is typically used with our integrations with CMMS- or GIS-type applications like Maintenance Connection, Maximo, or SAP.
    SAVED SEARCHESSaved Searches: Saving a search stores your search filters so that you can return to the same list of items later. Saved searches, you can:

    §  Overwrite an existing saved search with a new result set,

    §  Revise the filters and save the new criteria,

    §  Share a saved search with another person,

    §  Delete a saved search you no longer need

     SIGN-INMeridian Cloud Sign: Allows you to sign in with either your Google, Microsoft Windows Live, or Azure AD account. You must have an account with one of these services to use Meridian Cloud. Additionally, if your System Administrator has enabled SAML, you can sign in using a SAML Identity Provider. The email address that you use to sign in can be different than the one which was used to invite you.

     

    MERIDIAN PORTAL

     

    What is Meridian Portal?

    Meridian Portal is a web application designed to allow Project Documents, Data and Asset Collaboration. Users include Document Management, External Contractors, Regulatory Organizations, and other External End Users.

    Meridian Portal provides a Personal Dashboard with Project Document, Data and Asset status reports and packages workflow progress. Meridian Portal contains a central repository for Project Documents, Data and Asset with text search and dynamic filtering to allow users to quickly find what they require. Specific document detail views can be implemented for internal and external use.

    The Meridian Portal Key Features of Include:

    • Internal and external collaboration in a secure cloud-based project portal
    • Easy-to-use task-based user interface
    • Formal and informal work packages information exchange
    • Collaborative document review and approval processes
    • Automated document compliance and completeness checks
    • Full audit and history log on actions performed by internal and external participants

     

     

    CONCEPTFUNCTION
    AUDIT TRAILAudit Trail: Meridian Cloud keeps track of almost every activity in the system. Administrators can trace user authentication, access logs, project activities, and even electronic signatures, which are critical for the life sciences industry.
    CLIPBOARDSet Under Change: When a package is received and accepted from a contractor, small modifications on the received documents may be necessary. To support this the documents can be assigned to an internal member.
    DASHBOARDSThe Dashboards: Give you valuable insights to your projects, packages, and documents in one place. With them, you can view a variety of metrics and filter the results by project names and dates. If desired, you can export the data in spreadsheet formats for further analysis.
    DOCUMENTSDocuments in Portal: Documents are combinations of files managed by Meridian users via one or more workflows. Documents are composed of three “parts”: The source file, the rendition (which can be generated in the system), and the document metadata. Document metadata consists of document properties, used to capture information to describe the document details. As documents are revised, Portal tracks the changes to the document and records these changes as are saved as revisions in the document’s history.
    PACKAGESPackages: Meridian Cloud packages contain documents for the exclusive use of the project members to which the packages are issued. Packages can be used as submittals and transmittals between project teams. A transmittal sheet (Microsoft Excel workbook) is included for package content verification. Packages are also used to exchange documents between Meridian Cloud and Meridian Enterprise. Project members can download documents from packages. Meridian Cloud assigns a status to each package for each step in its life cycle to make finding, tracking, and processing packages easier.
    PROJECTSProjects: The primary workspaces in Meridian Portal. After you create projects, you can invite others to join the projects via email. Meridian Portal uses containers called packages within projects to assign sets of documents to other project members for action. After the recipients accept their project invitations, they can work with the packages that are assigned to them. They can also upload documents of their own to packages in the projects.

    Projects in Meridian Portal can be linked to projects in PowerWeb at the project-level.

    QUICK SHARESQuick Shares: Quick Share is a temporary package that you can create to share documents with other project members securely. Quick Shares expire after 30 days and then are deleted automatically. They are not otherwise tracked by Meridian Portal, so you should use them only for informally sharing documents, not as official transmittals.

     

    To learn more about how Meridian 2022 and the CMMS solution can help your team, don’t hesitate to contact the SolidCAD Meridian Team.