Deriving a document is the same as copying a document except that a reference is made to the original document so you can easily locate the origin of the derived document. The revision number of a derived document is not incremented. References to and from the original document are not copied to the new document. To also copy the references, use Derive with References and see Duplicate References. You may derive new documents only from existing released documents.
Unlike a new revision (created by a document workflow) or a replaced document in which references to its source document are updated to refer to the new revision, references to the source of a derived document are not updated to refer to the derived document. This can be important if you need to maintain the existing configuration of references between assemblies, subassemblies, and parts.
Another difference between the Derive Document and Replace Document commands is that derived documents are not retired, but replaced documents are retired and may not be revised again unless they are unretired.
For a comparison of the various copy commands, see Copy Commands.
