Specification flow is a powerful feature in DriveWorks that gives the DriveWorks Administrator the ability to customize the DriveWorks specification process. (ie rules for what happens and when it happens).

When a project is first set up in DriveWorks it is created with a default specification flow which guides a specification through four basic states – Running (i.e. filling out forms in the specification), Saved, Pending, and Completed.

Each one of these states has links to other states to move from one state to another. For example, a specification in the Saved state can be moved into the Running state, and a specification in the Running state can be moved into the Pending state (by clicking Finish), or the Completed state (by clicking Release). These links between states are called transitions.

Each state also has certain operations that can be performed on it, but which do not move to another state, for example, a specification can be deleted, or copied.

The Specification Flow can be customized in DriveWorks Administrator to meet your own specification and Work flow needs.

Example Uses
There are lots of reasons why you may want to look at customizing your specification flow, here are a few examples.

• You may have a quoting process which involves generating a general-assembly drawing – all before releasing to manufacture and before the full manufacturing information is generated.
• You may have additional requirements during the specification process such as copying a document to another machine which otherwise would involve complicated macros.
• You may simply want to change the text that is displayed on the “Finish” button to something like “Quote”
• You may want to set rules that determine that a Sales Manager can see all specifications generated by your distributors, but only let each distributor see their own specifications.

You can read more about Specification Flow in the ONLINE documentation file
http://docs.driveworkspro.com/?ProjectEditorSpecificationFlow.html