A unique characteristic of CMF files is the ability to specify multiple configurations to be active at the same time. A particular change or addition can be made once and applied to multiple configurations, which is useful when working in an environment in which more than one configuration is actively used.
For example, an environment uses the 2007 version of SmartPlant P&ID in conjunction with the latest version of Smart Instrumentation, and you want to add a property that is to be transferred between these two applications working against different configurations. In order to create the property, you make both the 2007 and 2018 configurations active at the same time and add the property. The property is then available in both configurations.