Create Evolution Tree

When you open the Design Evolution Manager for the first time, or when you click the New Tree button in the Design Evolution Manager toolstrip, the Create New Evolution Tree dialog box guides you through the process of creating a new evolution tree. Select the project containing your design files and give the evolution tree a name. Optionally, add notes about the evolution tree.

The app creates a new evolution tree containing the Baseline evolution. The Baseline evolution contains a copy of all files in the project in their current state. The node beneath the Baseline evolution represents the current state of the files in the project. Some or all of these files may diverge from the version stored in the Baseline evolution as you continue your design work. You can also add and remove files between evolutions.

The evolution tree you create will be saved as part of the project. All of your design files must be contained within a single project.

A project can contain multiple evolution trees. Use the Change Tree and Delete Tree buttons to manage evolution trees in your project. You can also right-click the canvas of the evolution tree to access these options.

Create Evolution

After making changes to one or more files in your design, you can save the current state of the project files by clicking Create Evolution. The app creates a new evolution as a child of the Baseline evolution.

Update Evolution

To update an existing evolution with additional changes made to files in the project, first select the evolution in the evolution tree, then click Update Evolution. Only the parent evolution of the project node can be updated. You cannot update an evolution that has multiple child evolutions.

To add a file to an evolution, first add the file to the project. Then, select the evolution in the evolution tree and click Update Evolution.

Get Evolution into Project

At any point in the design process, you can return to a previous version of your design that was saved in an evolution. Select the evolution to which you want to return, then click Get Evolution. The Design Evolution Manager gets that version of the design files into the project. The evolution tree indicates this action visually by moving the project node to be a child of the selected evolution. You can then continue working with this previous version of the design files.

If you have added or deleted files between evolutions, the app warns you that these files will be added or removed from the project.

Delete Evolutions

To delete an evolution, first select the evolution, then click Delete Evolution. The app deletes the evolution. If the deleted evolution had one child node, the child is reparented to the next-higher evolution in the tree. You cannot delete a parent evolution that has multiple child evolutions.

To delete a branch of the evolution tree, select the parent evolution and click Delete Branch. The app deletes the selected parent evolution and all child evolutions.