Very often it is important to take a Snapshot of a Project; this locks the data it contains to a moment in time and this is critical for Quotes, Orders etc. where product pricing might change at a later date; the Order or Quote must show pricing from the time it was generated.
Users see at the top of your Application their Projects and their Snapshots. Projects can be edited but Snapshots are read-only.
When working in a Project the user can take a Snapshot at any time. This creates a copy of the Project that contains all the data for that Project at time of creation. This means that even if pricing or other data in your Application changes, the Snapshot stays the same.
When a Snapshot is created it is assigned a Unique Number. This Unique Number is used in Reports to specifically identify the Snapshot and it cannot be changed after the Snapshot is created. For Reports, the Unique Number gives every quote, order or invoice a permanent, unambiguous reference.
Taking a Snapshot copies the entire Project as it stands — every View, every item on every drawing, all of its products and all of its cables — into a new, locked record. Connections between items are preserved in the copy, so a Snapshot is a faithful, frozen duplicate of the live Project, not just a summary.