Asset Types

Asset types define what kind of thing an asset is. Every asset must belong to a type, and the type determines which properties are available for it.

Navigate to Asset Manager → Settings → Types to manage your types.

Default Types

VSEC ships with three built-in types:

Type	Icon	Typical Use
Vehicle	Car	Top-level vehicle platform or product line
Feature	Gear	A functional capability or software subsystem
Component	Puzzle piece	A hardware ECU or physical module

These types are seeded automatically. Like any other type, they can be deleted — see Editing & Deleting Types for what deletion does.

The seeded default types come with a hierarchy: Vehicle → Feature → Component. Because asset links are only valid between a parent type and one of its direct child types, a Component links under a Feature, not directly under a Vehicle, unless you change the type parents.

Creating a Custom Type

Click the + button next to the type selector to create a new type. When no types exist yet, the page shows a Create New Type button instead. You will need to provide:

Name — required; must be unique within your workspace
Description — optional; shown in the UI to help users pick the right type
Icon — optional; a preset icon identifier used for display (e.g. car, chip, gear)
Parent Type — optional; lets you nest types in a hierarchy (e.g. “Gateway ECU” under “Component”)

Every new type automatically gets Product Owner, Keywords, and Interfaces, shown under a fixed Default Properties heading. After creating a type, you can assign further properties to it from the type’s settings or from the Properties settings page.

Type Hierarchy

Types support optional parent-child relationships. A child type inherits the context of its parent for display purposes but does not automatically inherit its parent’s properties — property assignments are always explicit.

For example, you might create:

Component
├── Gateway ECU
├── Telematics ECU
└── Infotainment ECU

In the asset creation dialog, types are shown indented by depth so their hierarchy is visible.

The type hierarchy also governs which assets can be linked together (see Asset Details → Links): an asset can only be linked as the child of another asset when its type is a direct child type of the parent asset’s type. A Vehicle can never be linked under another Vehicle, and same-type links are never valid — neither is a direct child type of the other. This applies to manual links, edits to an asset’s parents/children, and links the AI curation tool proposes.

Editing & Deleting Types

Click any existing type to edit its name, description, icon, or parent. You can also add or remove the properties associated with the type from the same screen.

Deleting a type also deletes all assets of that type, together with those assets’ hierarchy links and property values. The delete dialog requires you to tick a confirmation checkbox reading “Deleting an asset type will delete all assets of this type. Are you sure?” before the deletion runs.

Deleting an asset type is destructive and cannot be undone. Every asset of the type is deleted, along with its links to other assets and all of its property values. If you might need the data again, export your inventory first.

Removing a property from a type does not delete the property values already stored on existing assets of that type. Those values remain but will no longer be shown or editable on the asset detail page.

Last updated on October 11, 2026

Asset Properties