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Brian Schanen joined Autodesk in 2005 as a Product Designer and currently is a Customer Success Engineer for Autodesk’s Data Management products. Brian has taught at Autodesk University numerous times and has authored white papers on Vault and Productstream. He works with customers to implement a complete digital prototyping solution specializing in Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Vault and Productstream. Brian lives near Detroit, Michigan.
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Search and Sort Inventor DWG
April 25, 2007 10:54 AMbyAutodesk Vault 2008 supports the new DWG TrueConnect functionality of Inventor 2008. Companies often Vault their AutoCAD and Inventor data together. Now you can search and sort these files, even though they have the same file extension. In Vault Explorer, you use Advanced Search to find Inventor DWGs amongst all the DWGs in your Vault. This search can then be saved to call on later.
To begin, from the Tools pull down, select Advanced Find.
There are two criteria youll need to search across. First, from the Property pull down list select File Classification. The Condition = is. And the Vault = Design Document. Click the Add button to place this rule in the list.
The Second Property to choose is File Name. Set the Condition = contains. Set the Vault = dwg. Add this to the criteria list.
Click the Find Now button to begin the search. The results are listed below. We suggest saving this a search for future use to Vault users. As other Inventor DWGs are added to the Vault, the list will dynamically update with those DWGs.
-Brian Schanen
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Tracking Your File Status within Vault
April 24, 2007 12:09 PMbyWhile working with Vault and Inventor, you can get into the situation that you have changed a part, but become unsure if you have updated all the related files, like assemblies and drawings. In Vault you can quickly see in the Where Used and Uses Tabs about the relations, but it does not show you the current status of these files.
Vault can help you with this by displaying a flag on these files. There is a property called File Status maintained internally which can be used to display and search for files needing an update. Setting it up consists of 3 steps:
1. Update the current status of files in the Vault
2. Show the status in the File Grid inside Vault and
3. Make a search for files needing an update.
To enable this setting, open the ADMS Console (formerly Vault Manager). Select the Actions\Update File Status. This updates records of relations between files:
Next, in Vault Explorer, Select the File Grid and use RMB Customize View in the Column Header. Select Fields and select the File Status from All File Fields, like shown in the image below: The column with the little Lightning Bolt mark files needing update.
The field File Status is also searchable. Create an Advanced Search with Criteria File Status / is / Needs Updating save it as a folder and you will have a list of all files needing an update like shown below. For very large Vaults it could perhaps be a good idea to create a number of similar searches, each covering a separate subfolder, as you can set this with the Browse button.
So when ever you are unsure if you have updated all files, click on this Saved Search folder, and you will get a list of all files needing an update. This Saved Search can be used from the Open From Vault dialog box in Inventor. Remember to make the edits top down as updating the top drawing will make sure that remaining intermediate files also will be updated with a 'check out all' children.
Finally, for parts and assemblies that are assigned to Items, this is a means of verifying that the associated drawing is accurate to the changes made to the model.
-Brian Schanen
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Introducing Autoloader for Vault 2008
April 18, 2007 02:37 PMbyAutodesk Vault Autoloader 2008 has been released and is ready for download. This new release boasts several customer requested features including DWG support, DWF generation on upload, and flat file support. You can download it here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL9484386
For those of us who are going to be uploading DWG files through Autoloader, please install this hotfix (TS1069833) first:
http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL9454451
Please note that Autoloader installs with DWG TrueView 2008. This is used to publish DWF from the AutoCAD DWGs. If you have TrueView 2007 already installed, we recommend that you uninstall TrueView 2007 first, and then run the Autoloader setup.
Here is a helpful hint for first time you run Autoloader 2008. Dataset selection is now folder based. This allows the user to upload the entire job/project/folder of data to the Vault. If Inventor files are detected, then youll be prompted for an Inventor ipj to help resolve dependencies.
Youll also note that in the Map Vault Folders wizard screen, the folder mapping process follows the AutoCAD Vault add-in paradigm of selecting the target folder. In other words, you select the folder to place a selected folder under.
Thats all for now. Watch for more Best Practices on populating your Vault, coming soon
-Brian Schanen
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Back on the Blog
April 18, 2007 02:26 PMbyHello All. Ive taken a new role at Autodesk within Brian Roepkes group to focus on customer success with Autodesks Data Management products. I am excited to be part of this team and looking forward to assisting customers in their implementation and ongoing usage of Vault and Productstream.
One of the charters of this team is increased awareness and communication of Autodesk Data Management topics. I encourage you to watch for technical posts here and white papers aimed at a deep dive into Vault and Productstream functionality. Feel free to post questions here or email me at: brian.schanen@autodesk.com
-Brian Schanen
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A Simple Tip for Displaying Properties
April 5, 2007 02:01 PMby Brian RoepkeFrom time to time people want to display a bunch of properties in Productstream and Vault but when they do it ends up shrinking down each column to the point where nothing can be read... This is from the default behavior of the grids to try to "Auto Fit" all the properties. While this works for most cases and leaves a clean minty fresh taste; it doesn't always work. Take a look at the following image to see what I mean.
However, you can disable this feature. Right click the column header and select customize view, you should see the following dialog. Select Other Settings button.
You should see the following dialog. Turn off the check box in Automatic Column Sizing and click ok, close all the other dialogs.
You should now see a horizontal scrollbar in view and the column headers will not shrink!
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Smarter Backups when using Content Center and ADMS
April 4, 2007 10:07 PMby Brian RoepkeEven since the Inventor Content Center moved to the vault weve been able to take advantage of centralized content however we also had a pretty large amount of data added to our server. For many, this has increased the amount of time it takes to backup their server to an uncomfortable level. The truth is we dont need to backup of any of the supplied standard content libraries; they are read-only and we can simply add them back at any time if we lost one.
Well The Autodesk Data Management Server (or ADMS) just got a little smarter with the 2008 release. There is a simple new switch called -DBSC that will automate the process of detaching libraries and attaching them again.
Here is an excerpt from the help file
-DBSC
Excludes the standard content libraries from the back up process. The standard content libraries are detached before backing up the vault, the vault is backed up, and then the standard content libraries are reattached.
In addition to this, when performing a manual backup you can chose this option as well.
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Using a File Name as an Item Number
April 4, 2007 09:05 AMby Brian RoepkeA question that gets asked ALL the time is "How do I use my file name as an Item number?" Excellent question.
A little known tip that can help you accomplish this is to map a special property called "Component Name" to the Item's "Number" property. The "Component Name" property is a special place holder for a few things.
1. The file name without the extension.
2. Virtual component names (Inventor and AutoCAD Mechanical)
3. AutoCAD Mechanical component names where there is no file associated with it.
There is also a special "Catalog Number" for AutoCAD Mechanical component's "Number" value. This is mapped by default however so there really isn't anything special to do here.
Here are a few images that show you how to do this.
First off you need a file with a proper "Number" as a name. With Productstream 2008 you have built in File Naming tools that can help you get unique file names; or simply pick your own. (Check out "ENHANCED Rename" for more information.)
Next we need to set the mapping for this property. In the Administration tools switch to the item tab and select the "Mapping" button. Here we need to map the "Component Name" to the "Number" property as shown below.
Next... simple enough we Assign the file to an item and Viola!
0 Comment | Add CommentIn Under The Hood > Items, Productstream
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Out With the Old...
April 4, 2007 08:54 AMby Brian RoepkeNow that we've officially wished Grant a great success in his new journey I thought I'd pick up where he left off.
Many of you know me if you are a Vault or Productstream user. I've been all over the world teaching and talking about our Data Management products and of course I like to frequent the Vault and Productstream discussion groups. I recently took a new job as well; but I'm staying in Data Management as the manager of a new team of people directly dedicated to helping customers be successful.
Over the next year you will see my team produce a bunch of new material that will help you learn the ins-and-outs of our products, best practices and of course the occasional silly story. If you have any special topics you would like me to write about please let me know directly. You can contact me here: brian.roepke@autodesk.com
Thats all for now Look for great tips and trick here as well. Many to come!
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Signing Off
April 3, 2007 04:19 PMby Grant RochelleWell folks, it's time for me to say "Ta ta". I recently changed jobs here are Autodesk (which explains my lack of posting in the new year), and now I have to sign off the Blog for good. Please keep an eye on this space though, you'll be hearing from the Data Management team very soon with more tips, tricks and news from around the world.
Thanks for your support over the last year or so. All the best and..... Cheers!