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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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Hotfix - R2008 Support for ADR R2009 Side-By-Side
March 31, 2008 09:54 AMby Brian SchanenAutodesk has released this hotfix which allows Autodesk Design Review 2009 to work with R2008 and R2009 products installed side-by-side. Autodesk Design Review 2009 is not compatible with Autodesk Productstream R2008 SP1
and Autodesk Vault R2008 SP1. This update resolves issues allowing the products to
be compatible in a side-by-side installation scenario with the R2009 products:
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Workspace Synchronization in Productstream 2009
March 26, 2008 10:36 PMby Brian SchanenThe new Workspace Synchronization feature reduces the need to manually manage the local workspace at each user’s machine. This feature compares the contents of a user’s Workspace against the contents of the corresponding vault. The command supports two primary operations; first downloading and updating out of date files and removing files that fall within the expiration rules.
Workspace Synch and Quick Synch
Two options for Workspace cleanup are available; the primary interface uses the Workspace Synchronization Wizard to provide full user interaction with the options as well as the ability to override its defaults.
The secondary interface is Quick Sync and will simply run the command without any user interaction accepting the defaults based on the previously configured settings.
Options and Settings
The Workspace Sync feature allows you to configure the different rules desired on a per user basis. The following rules can be applied: removing temporary files per extension, expiration rules for managed (in Productstream) and unmanaged files (not yet in Productstream) as well as the ability to set up exclusions. Additionally these rules can be stored in an XML file and shared out to other members of the design team.
Command line support
Most of the time, this command is invoked by the user. However, if there is a desire to automate the process, perhaps at the beginning of each day, command line support has been added. The following syntax can be used to run the process:
-Brian Schanen
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Autodesk Data Management Survey
March 24, 2008 02:54 PMby Brian SchanenHello,The Data Management team here at Autodesk is conducting a quick survey for all Vault customers. Please follow the link; this will only take a few minutes. Thanks!
-Brian Schanen -
Performance and Scalability in Productstream 2009
March 17, 2008 10:48 PMby Brian SchanenSeveral improvements to the Autodesk Data Management solution have been introduced to accommodate larger amounts of data and users. In this article, we’ll examine new features that address performance, scalability, and help maintain the system integrity. Note that the following features are also included in Vault as well.
New Search Engine Technology
The search engine technology used for Productstream has been updated with the latest technology available ensuring search performance is optimized. You will notice a dramatic increase in the response time of any search conducted in the system.
Negative Bias Property Management
In previous versions of Productstream, any new file level property that was found in the system was automatically added to the database and made available for searching. This process lead to unwanted properties displayed to the users and sub-optimal performance with searching. Productstream 2009 now offers a “negative bias” on property management; meaning that new properties will automatically be recognized but will not be made available in the system until the administrator turns them on and re-indexes the server.
Basic Find bar
Over the years users have told us that the primary way that data is searched in Productstream is through the “basic” find, or the “Find Bar” located throughout the system. Given this we’ve made it possible to now configure the specific properties that are relevant to users on a daily basis. This configuration leads to higher level of accuracy and faster searches. In addition to the improvements to the basic find; the search box is now available by default for all users and “always on” encouraging its use.
The Find Bar (formerly ‘Basic’ find) also offers a new Search Builder paradigm making it easy to build an advanced search at any time. Users can add multiple search criteria to quickly narrow down their searches.
Advanced Search Editing
The Advanced tab in the Find dialog has also been improved with a subtle workflow change that allows a change to a previously added property / value pair. By simply selecting the previously added criteria along and then the “Replace” button, users can quickly change out the value of a search criteria without having to click Remove and then Add the updated conditions and values to the list.
Parameterized Search
Parameterized searches are now available with the advanced find and saved searches. For any criteria you like you can set the value to “ask me later” as opposed to an actual value. These searches will then ask the user for information before actually executing.
Re-Indexing
The re-indexing command has been enhanced to run as a separate process on the server. This process will run as a “below normal” priority and will allow an administrator to re-index the server without loading the server. Additionally the re-index command can also be run without blocking access to the server and can pause and continue for operations such as backup and server reboots. Finally, each document that is indexed is run as a separate transaction ensuring that if any of the many documents fail to index the server will simply continue to the next instead of failing. A report of any failed documents can be generated at the end of the process.
Paging
In previous versions of Productstream entire search results would be returned regardless of the number of records that were possible for the query. In Productstream 2009 the administrator can set up a threshold for the maximum number of records that can be returned at a single time. If additional results are needed for the users work a “More” button is presented where blocks of data can be added to the search results.
This paging effects the following: search results, Item master, Change Order List, and Custom Views. Paging will not only provide fast performance as the amount of data scales but also requires less resources on the server as users search for data, since less data will always be returned.
-Brian Schanen
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Securing Company CAD Standards with Vault
March 5, 2008 09:45 AMby Brian SchanenAutodesk Vault provides the necessary foundation for controlling access to all of your company’s engineering related data – and beyond. Aside from the data used in your designs, Vault is also an excellent place to control your company standards. In this article, we’re going to take a look at configuring your Vault to house your Inventor Templates and Styles.
The location of where Inventor looks for Style and Templates is set in the Project file (.ipj). In addition, the ipj holds settings for the Inventor Styles.
Initially, the .ipj states the path for Templates and Styles as [Default], which points Inventor to load these definitions from Tools>Application Options>File tab in Inventor. If the .ipj states anything other than [Default], this is an override and Inventor will use that new path. This is where Vault comes in…
Whether you use the Autoloader to populate Vault or you create your own, you will need to configure the Vault project file with the override settings. There are several options to the location of the Templates and Design Data – local (each users’ machine), or network (common shared location).
If you opt for the local, the Design Data and Templates folder will reside adjacent to each users’ Workspace on their machine. Edit the Inventor Project file (you may need to Check it out from Vault) to have the folder for Templates and Design Data as relative to the .ipj, or as a subfolder. In other words, Templates will be stored in .\Templates, Styles will be stored in .\Design Data, and so on. This also follows suit with the Content Center Files, Libraries, and the Workspace in a Vault project file.
This method is particularly nice as it allows Vault users to be mobile, and carry the data with them while working offline. This is also my recommendation on how to set up each users’ machine.
If the network location is your goal, you will need to enter an ‘override’ working folder mapping. This is achieved by editing the properties of the Vault folders. Note that the network option conflicts with the Administrative option to set the Working Folder for all users. You have to change this to allow each user to define their working folder. Whichever method you choose, when you are finished, your Vault folder structure will resemble the image below.
-Brian Schanen