Whenever you create a new version of a document, you have the choice of either entering your own custom label for the version, or letting ProjectWise automatically assign a version identifier (also referred to as a version string, or a version label) for you. If you let ProjectWise assign a version identifier, it will either be a letter or a number, depending on the current versioning settings of the datasource (set in ProjectWise Administrator).

With the default versioning settings, no version identifier is assigned to the document when it is added to the datasource, and then letter A is assigned to the first version created of that document. The administrator can change the settings so that versioning uses numbers instead of letters. The administrator can also change the settings so that a version identifier is automatically assigned to the document when it is added to the datasource, which means that the first version created will get the next available version identifier.

In this example, default versioning settings are used. A file called building.dgn is added to the datasource and no version identifier is assigned. Later, three versions (A, B, C) are created. When version display is turned on, the version set would look something like this in the document list:

In this example, versioning is using numbers instead of letters:

In this example, versioning is using numbers instead of letters, and versioning is configured to automatically assign a version identifier to the document when it is added to the datasource:

Whether versioning is configured to use letters (default) or numbers, versioning always uses the next available letter or number when auto-assigning the version identifier. For example, if the latest version for a document used letter D as the version identifier, then the next version you create for that document will be version E. Likewise, if the latest version for a document used number 4 as the version identifier, then the next version you create for that document will be version 5. When you are using letters and you reach the end of the alphabet (that is, after 26 versions have been created), the labeling starts over at AA, AB, AC, and so on.

If you happen to use a custom label when creating a particular version, and then you go back to letting ProjectWise automatically assign the version identifier for the next version you create, ProjectWise will skip the letter or number that would have been assigned when you entered your custom label, and will move on to the next available letter or number.

In this example, the user let ProjectWise automatically assign the version identifiers "A" and "B" for the first two versions. For the third version, the user enters the custom label "Draft Sent for Review" (instead of letting ProjectWise automatically assign letter "C"). For the fourth version, the user lets ProjectWise automatically assign the version identifier again, and so for the fourth version ProjectWise skips letter "C" and assigns the next available letter, which is "D".