From the Format specification - Must exist dialog you can specify the items that must already exist in the database for the import to proceed. This is especially important for the following card-related objects:
Fieldbus ports
Fieldbus devices
Programmable serial ports
Programmable serial datasets
Serial ports
Serial datasets
Local cards
Zone 1 cards
Zone 2 cards
Logic solver cards
Each of these objects has a node name and card slot field (the actual names depend on the object type) you can specify that must exist. If you are creating these objects, leave both fields unselected. This allows DeltaV to create the objects, including cards, even if the card slot and node name already exist in the configuration. If you are modifying information about cards select both fields to prevent Bulk Edit from erroneously changing the card types on import.
CAUTION!If the node name and card slot fields are not selected as Must exist in a format file, the Bulk Edit import overwrites any existing card type data for the objects specified in the import file.
To avoid accidentally overwriting card types you may want to create two format specification files for each of the listed card-related objects: One without the node name and card slot fields selected as Must exist to create new objects, and one with the fields selected to modify existing objects.