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	Working in Synthesis

Security Options

All enterprise databases use login security, meaning that the Synthesis applications use Windows authentication (or alternative credentials) to identify each user and control the user’s access via security groups. For a standard database, you can choose whether to apply login security; if you don’t, any user who has read/write access to the file will have full permissions throughout the database.

By default, each user in a secure database will have the same set of permissions for every public project in the database (e.g., Jane Engineer has read-write access to all projects, Bill User has read-only access to all projects, and so on). Alternatively, you can configure the database to provide different permissions for different public projects, if desired (e.g., Jane Engineer has read-write access to all of Department A’s projects, but she has read-only access to other projects). With either approach, you also have the option to further limit access for specific project items (e.g., folios, diagrams, system hierarchy items, etc.) if needed.

There are many different ways these options can be configured depending on your organization’s particular needs. The following topics discuss:

• Applying login security for a standard database.

• Planning your security approach.

• Managing user accounts, which may also involve:

• Importing users from Active Directory.

• Creating alternative credentials (if the user needs to log in from a different domain).

• Editing user login and contact information.

• Managing security groups (sets of permissions).

• Setting item permissions.

• Tools for coordinating access by multiple users, including:

• Status indicators ("in use" or "restricted access").

• Resetting "in use" flags (if an item is incorrectly locked for editing).

• Keeping track of prior logins.