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Core concepts

MatStream is built around a small set of concepts that work together to form a powerful, flexible platform. Understanding these building blocks will help you navigate MatStream confidently — regardless of whether you are using it for PLM, document control, quality management, or any other use case.

Entity

An entity is the fundamental object in MatStream. It represents any item your organisation needs to track and manage.

An entity could be:

  • A mechanical part or assembly
  • A drawing or technical document
  • A controlled procedure or work instruction
  • A supplier or manufacturer
  • A customer complaint or non-conformance
  • A product in your catalogue
  • Anything else your organisation needs to manage with structure and traceability

Every entity in MatStream has the same consistent foundation — a unique number, a category, a lifecycle state, a revision, properties, files, and links to other entities. What differs between entity types is the configuration — the properties, lifecycle, and relationships defined for each category.

Tip

If you can describe it, track it, version it, or approve it — it can be an entity in MatStream.

Category

A category defines the type of an entity. It acts as a template that determines:

  • Which properties the entity carries
  • Which lifecycle definition applies
  • Which revision scheme is used
  • Which numbering scheme generates its identifier
  • Which display tabs appear on its detail page

Examples of categories:

Category Typical use
Raw Material A purchased raw material with material grade and supplier properties
Purchased Part A bought component with manufacturer and lead time properties
Assembly A multi-level assembly with BOM children
Drawing A technical drawing linked to a part or assembly
Procedure A controlled work instruction with issue number and effective date
Non-conformance A quality record linked to an affected part revision

Your administrator defines the categories that match your organisation's needs. There are no fixed or hardcoded category types in MatStream.

Property

A property is a structured data field on an entity. Properties capture the information your organisation needs to record about each item — things like material grade, supplier, weight, approval date, or any other attribute relevant to your process.

Properties are defined per category and can be of the following types:

Type Description
Text Free-form text
Number Numeric value, optionally linked to a unit of measure
Date A calendar date
Boolean A yes/no toggle
List A dropdown with controlled allowed values

Properties can be marked as required (must be filled before saving), searchable (available as filter criteria), or restricted to specific user groups.

Version

Every time an entity is saved, MatStream creates a new internal version record. Versions form the complete audit trail of every change ever made to an entity — who changed it, when, and what the values were at that point.

Versions are automatic and transparent. You do not need to think about them during normal use — MatStream handles versioning in the background.

Revision

A revision is a formally labelled milestone in an entity's history. Where versions capture every save, revisions capture official releases — the points in time where an entity has been formally approved and released.

Revision labels follow a configurable revision scheme — for example:

  • Alphabetic: A → B → C → ...
  • Numeric: 1 → 2 → 3 → ...
  • Two-level: AA → AB → ... → AZ → BA → ...

A revision label is permanent and immutable once assigned. It forms part of your audit trail and cannot be edited.

Lifecycle state

A lifecycle state describes where an entity currently sits in your approval process. Every entity is always in exactly one lifecycle state.

Common lifecycle states include Draft, In Review, Released, and Obsolete — but your administrator configures the exact states that match your process.

Lifecycle states control:

  • What users can do with the entity (read, edit, delete)
  • Which transitions are available (e.g. Submit for review, Release, Reject)
  • Who can trigger each transition (permission gates per user group)

Lifecycle definition

A lifecycle definition is a reusable configuration of states and transitions that can be assigned to multiple categories. Rather than configuring each category separately, your administrator defines a lifecycle once and reuses it across all categories that follow the same approval process.

Revision scheme

A revision scheme defines the sequence of labels used when an entity is formally revised. Your administrator configures revision schemes at the workspace level and assigns them to categories.

Different categories can use different revision schemes — for example, mechanical parts might use alphabetic revisions while documents use numeric ones.

Numbering scheme

A numbering scheme is a configurable template that automatically generates unique, human-readable identifiers for new entities.

Templates can combine:

  • Static text prefixes (e.g. PP- for purchased parts)
  • Date tokens (e.g. {YYYY} for the current year)
  • Auto-incrementing counters (e.g. {NNNN} for a zero-padded number)

Example: PP-2026-0042 — a purchased part created in 2026, number 42.

A link is a relationship between two entities. Links are directional — entity A uses entity B — and MatStream automatically maintains the reverse relationship, so entity B knows it is used by entity A.

Links power:

  • Uses lists — what does this assembly use?
  • Where-used lists — which assemblies use this part?
  • Multi-level BOM trees — the full assembly structure, expanded on demand
  • Cross-domain relationships — a non-conformance linked to a part revision, a supplier linked to purchased parts

Workspace

A workspace is your organisation's isolated environment in MatStream. All entities, users, configurations, and settings are scoped to the workspace. Multiple workspaces can exist on the same platform — completely independent of each other.

User and group

Every person who accesses MatStream does so through a workspace user account. Users are organised into groups, which are the primary mechanism for controlling permissions. Users inherit the combined permissions of all groups they belong to.

How the concepts fit together

Workspace └── Categories (define structure) ├── Properties (data fields) ├── Lifecycle definition (states + transitions) ├── Revision scheme (A, B, C...) └── Numbering scheme (PP-2026-0001) Entity (instance of a category) ├── Versions (every save — full audit trail) ├── Revisions (formal releases — labelled milestones) ├── Lifecycle state (current position in approval process) ├── Property values (the data) ├── Files (attachments) └── Links (relationships to other entities) Users → Groups → Permissions

Next steps