DITA XML provides an efficient framework for the reuse of visual assets across different manufacturing documents, streamlining content creation and ensuring consistency across various materials.

Modular Asset Design

DITA encourages the creation of modular visual assets that can be used across different manufacturing documents. Manufacturers can develop standardized visual components, such as images, diagrams, or animations, as separate DITA topics or elements. These modular assets can be easily referenced in multiple documents, reducing the effort required to recreate visuals for different purposes. If an update is necessary, it can be made in one central location, ensuring consistency across all documents that use the asset.

Conditional Text for Contextual Usage

DITA’s conditional text capabilities can also be leveraged to facilitate the reuse of visual assets in a contextual manner. Visual assets can include conditional variants designed for different scenarios or product configurations. During the authoring process, authors can specify which conditional variant of the visual asset to include based on the context of the document, allowing for the same asset to adapt to different manufacturing scenarios without the need for multiple versions of the visual content.

Example:

Here’s an example of how DITA XML enables the reuse of visual assets across different manufacturing documents:

<topic id="standard-assembly-steps">
  <title>Standard Assembly Steps</title>
  <content>
    <p>These are the standard assembly steps:

    <figure>
      <image src="standard-assembly.png" alt="Standard Assembly" />
    </figure>
    <p>Follow these steps for all standard product assembly.

  </content>
</topic>

<topic id="custom-assembly-steps">
  <title>Custom Assembly Steps</title>
  <content>
    <p>These are the custom assembly steps:

    <figure>
      <image src="custom-assembly.png" alt="Custom Assembly" />
    </figure>
    <p>Follow these steps for custom product assembly.

  </content>

In this example, there are two DITA topics, each with a different assembly figure. By referencing these topics in various manufacturing documents, the same visuals can be reused for standard and custom assembly scenarios, ensuring consistency and efficiency.