VAULT PROJECT FOLDERS Autodesk recently implemented Projects in Vault. This may sound odd, because Vault is supposed to manage our project data, right? As each CAD application stores its data, it does so in an encapsulated application design folder grouping which is rarely mixed with other application type data and is often not even on the same server. As a result, data that is being developed for the same project is not organized together and becomes more difficult to manage. The Vault Project solves this problem by providing a virtual collection of data related to a collaborative design project. It is, as Brian Schaenen called it, a virtual Super-Folder that contains shortcuts to all the relevant project data, not only Inventor and Publisher files. Project managers now have a clean localized organization with links to all the data being developed for a particular project. Categories are now applied to Vault Project Folders, adding flexibility and an additional layer of sort capability. DATA SEARCH AND DEPENDENCIES Autodesk Vault indexes information about the files into a SQL database. One key feature this database provides is the ability to index more than just the filename. Vault indexes information such as author, part number, description, and date checked in, among many other fields of information about your file. Since Vault remembers these key fields of information, it can then be searched. This means that you don’t have to know the filename in order to find a file. You can know anything about the file, such as a part number, a description, or who created it. By searching for these fields, or any combination of the fields we might know, we can find a file much more efficiently than by using a search for files on a folder structure. This ability is further leveraged across Vault Project files mentioned previously. Now we can simultaneously search across various data types that are related to the same project, but often may be on separate servers.
Inventor The SQL database also gives us the capability of seeing the relationship between files, which allows us to see if a part or drawing is shared between just one component or several. Armed with this knowledge, we can determine how an intended change can affect other files we may not have been aware of, and prevents the unintended consequence of changing a file or assembly because there were unknown relationships in place. Vault is unsurpassed in the realm of situational awareness, delivering information on the current state of anything that can be queried, including all the files that are referenced by an assembly or all project components that a particular user is editing right now.
product focus
2012
VISUAL DATA MAPPING IN INVENTOR We can go far beyond searches and sorting by using the visual tools that are integrated between Inventor and Vault. Various aspects of sortable data can be reviewed visually in the graphics view area of Inventor using the supplied tools.
Figure 3: Vault map data visual report (image courtesy of Autodesk)
We can highlight component sets such as items listed in a change order and visualize which components are affected and who has been involved. This is all based on whatever query you need. Data Cards were added in the last version of Inventor and Vault, which deliver a convenient method of displaying and editing key metadata that is associated with the Inventor Components. Global changes to iProperties can be administered right inside the Vault and distributed to all the parts and assemblies via their data cards.
Figure 4: Data cards (image courtesy of Autodesk)
Figure 2: Vault file check-out by user query
July 2011
ABILITY TO COPY AND REUSE FILES Finding files is half the battle. The other half is copying and reusing files efficiently. The SQL database inside of Vault sees the relationship between files such as part and assembly relationships in Autodesk Inventor and external references between AutoCAD files.
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