Design Change Vectors® (DCV) Solution Overview
DCV (Design Change Vectors) uses virtual persistent identifiers based on a comparison of the design geometries to provide sustained integration of solid models. This approach allows integration without preconditions on the source of the data. The two main components are DCV Difference Recognition to recognize changes and DCV Integration to apply those changes in your native format. This ensures that all of the engineering and integration work invested in that design is protected regardless of changes to the design or even the format of the next version imported.
Not a translator: Translators convert between CAD formats but must re-create the context (features, boundary conditions, identifiers etc) for each import. Without DCV this reassigns the identifiers on the model preventing associativity and requiring manual re-engineering for each revision. DCV works on the file after it is translated to ensure that the identifiers assigned by your system during the initial import are protected.