CREATING AND USING STUDBOOK OVERLAYS
Studbook Overlays allow you to add assumptive data to your master (true) studbook to assist with analysis. The most common use is to record possible parents for UND (undetermined) parents or limit to a single animal when MULT parents are listed.
To create or manage your overlays open your studbook main dashboard. Select Overlays from the left hand dashboard.
To create a new overlay select New Overlay.
Because you may have multiple overlays, name the overlay so you can identify it in the list. Add a description so you will know exactly what hypothetical data you will be dealing with in this particular overlay.
From the overlay list you can 1) edit the name and description, 2) delete the overlay, 3) copy the overlay should you want to change some assumptions but do not want to recreate the entire overlay,
4) export to Excel, 5) export to pdf and 6) apply the overlay.
If the overlay is applied the arrow will change to a square. To work in the overlay use the breadcrumbs in the upper left to take you back to the studbook dashboard.
The dashboard in overlay mode is much simplified and only displays Living Animals and All Animals. Suggested Animals, Pending Updates, Data Quality and Studbook Activity are not available in the dashboard in overlay mode. Pending Updates will display in the animal details but you will not be able to take action on them.
Because for this overlay we are going to replace UND Sires in our living population with our best assumption we have selected Living Animals in Studbook > View List > Tools > Unknown Pedigree Report. You can tell that you are in overlay mode by the orange banner at the top. The breadcrumbs let you know which overlay you are in.
Select the hyperlink to the record to start recording your overlay data. In overlay mode you can make changes to Transactions, Parents, Sex and Notes and all other animal detail boxes are read only. Below we have selected to Change Parent Info.
When you Save you will receive a reminder that you are in overlay mode and your changes will only be applied to that specific overlay.
Once you have changed data the top of the grid will display Master Info. Hovering over Master Info will let you know what the original information was.
When in overlay mode you can use the breadcrumbs to get back to your master studbook or another overlay should you have multiple overlays. You will be kept in whatever record you were at the time
that you selected to change overlay views.
To create a brand new hypothetical animal record select the Add New HYP to Studbook from either Living Animals or All Animals.
The requirements are the same as adding a new animal into your true studbook and you must complete the Transactions, Parents, Taxonomy, Sex and Rearing fields. All HYPs will have an undetermined birth date by default.
Once these are completed you will have the option to save the new record into the overlay, and ZIMS will automatically assign it the next available Hypothetical SB#.
You can find any animals that have been edited in the overlay by selecting Assumptions on the left hand dashboard where the number of assumptions will display.
One important thing to note is that you can use Data Entry Monitoring to roll back true studbook data but you cannot use it to roll back overlay data.
Revised 5 March 2025
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