Asta Vision and baselines

Baselines of Asta Vision programmes are created each time a workflow rule that causes a baseline to be created is carried out. Asta Vision can be configured to work with baselines in one of two ways:

• 'Asta Powerproject Managed Baselines' mode. Using this mode, once a baseline copy of a programme is available, provided that the programme is not in progress, the baseline is checked out along with the programme automatically. Using this baseline behaviour, you can merge changes to a programme into baselines manually, using Asta Powerproject's standard baseline merge functionality, and these changes are uploaded automatically when you check in the programme.
• 'Vision Managed Baselines' mode. Using this mode, baselines are never checked in and out along with the corresponding programme. A copy of the baseline is downloaded automatically when you check out the corresponding programme, for viewing purposes only. Using this baseline behaviour, you cannot merge changes to a programme into baselines manually and any changes you make to a baseline in Asta Powerproject are lost as they are not uploaded when you check in the programme.

Regardless of baseline mode, if you download a specific revision of a programme, you can choose to download a specific revision of the programme's baseline as well. This enables you to compare the downloaded programme against a baseline. If you download or check out a programme and a baseline, a zip file containing both programme and baseline is downloaded to your computer, with the baseline appearing as an imported baseline in the programme.

If you download a specific revision of a programme from within Asta Powerproject - as opposed to from the Asta Vision website - you can also choose to download a different revision of the programme and treat this as a baseline. This enables you to compare the downloaded programme against any other revision of the programme. For example, if you were downloading the Delivery programme, you could choose to download the Contract revision of the programme and treat this as a baseline in Asta Powerproject.

When working with a checked out or downloaded programme in Asta Powerproject, you can choose at any time to download and import a baseline, or a different revision of the programme which is then treated as a baseline. This may be useful if you have checked out or downloaded a programme without a baseline. You do this by clicking the Vision button on the Baseline/What If Manager dialog and selecting the baseline or revision of the programme that you want to import.

If the Include baseline with following programme types check box on the Create/Edit Programme Type page is selected for a programme type, a copy of that programme type's baseline is downloaded automatically when programmes of a later type are checked out or downloaded, in addition to the later programme's baseline. This enables you to compare the baseline of an earlier programme type against a later programme. It might be useful to select this check box for a 'Contract' programme type, as this enables you to always compare later programmes against the 'Contract' programme. Only the baseline that relates to the current programme type is ever downloaded when you check out a programme to an Asta Powerproject Enterprise server, regardless of whether you select this check box.