The Claim operation identifies the scope of a project within a drawing. A project may affect some items on a drawing and leave others unchanged. All items that are affected by the project must be claimed before they can be modified or deleted. When a new item is placed on a drawing (in a project) it is automatically claimed.
In Options Manager, a plant setting called Claim Mode controls how items are claimed by concurrent projects. If the claim mode is Exclusive, only one project can claim an item at any given time. Exclusive claim mode enforces the rule that concurrent projects do not overlap at the object level. With this setting, conflict resolution at check-in time is simplified. If the claim mode is Shared, a single item can be claimed to more than one project. Shared claim mode allows concurrent projects to overlap at the object level. This setting may be required for plants that have truly overlapping projects; however conflict resolution at check in time will be more complex.
You can change the claim mode to Shared at any time. However, you can change the mode to Exclusive only when there are no claims in any project in the Plant.