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# Work with projects and streams in Visual Studio

This section describes how to use OpenText Dimensions CM projects and streams in Visual Studio.

In this topic:

## OpenText Dimensions CM projects

If your organization uses OpenText Dimensions CM projects, you check out, check in, and synchronize your files as you work on them.

You can work in one of the following ways with OpenText Dimensions CM projects:

Mode | Details
--- | ---
Pessimistic | This model requires all users to explicitly check out every file before making local changes, and then check it in after they have finished updating it.
Optimistic | This model does not require users to check files out. Users work on files locally and then regularly synchronize their local workspaces with the repository. During synchronization, users reconcile changes in their workspace with the repository, choosing how to resolve conflicts. The repository is updated with their changes, and their local workspaces are updated with other changes from the repository. For most users in an optimistic environment, synchronization may be the only OpenText Dimensions CM feature that is needed on a regular basis.

You can create the following types of projects:

- An empty project.
- A project based on a release or tip baseline. These types of baselines only contain one revision of each item.
- A project based on any version of another project. The new project is a child of the parent project from which it was created.

For an overview of projects, see About projects.

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## OpenText Dimensions CM streams

When you work with OpenText Dimensions CM streams, you typically:

- Update your local work area with files from the repository. This copies all new and modified files from OpenText Dimensions CM to your local work area. This may include merging conflicting versions of files, if other users have worked on any of the same files as you.
- Deliver your local files to OpenText Dimensions CM. This adds any new files to OpenText Dimensions CM and checks in new versions of any files that you have updated locally.
- Merge streams. For details, see Merge changes across streams in Visual Studio.

You don't need to check files in or out, get files, or synchronize. For details about parallel development features, see Parallel development using streams.

You can create the following types of streams:

- An empty stream.
- A stream based on a release or tip baseline. These types of baselines only contain one revision of each item. To create a stream containing the items from a project, first create a tip baseline of the project and then create a new stream based on that baseline.
- A stream based on any version of another stream. The new stream is a child of the parent stream from which it was created.
- A topic stream, which is a private development branch that is only visible to the originator.

For an overview of streams, see About streams.

For details about topic streams and pull requests, including examples and scenarios, see Topic streams and pull requests.

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See also:

- Set up source control

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