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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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Autodesk Vault Report Template Authoring
September 29, 2009 04:00 PMby Brian SchanenVault Collaboration 2010 and Vault Manufacturing 2010 provide the ability to generate formatted reports representing data contained in a vault. Reports can be generated for files, items, and change orders. The Vault objects that appear in a report are determined by the search options specified in the Advanced Find dialog.
The properties that are displayed in the report, as well as the report layout, are specified in a report template file that is specified when generating a report. Through the report template, you have complete control of the report content, layout, and format.
This white paper will take you through the steps to create templates to meet your company’s needs:
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/report_template_authoring.pdf
-Brian Schanen
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Autodesk Vault Connect integration with Axapta
September 23, 2009 12:45 PMby Brian SchanenAutodesks Vault Connect is an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) platform that facilitates the exchange of data between Autodesk Vault Manufacturing and other enterprise systems. These systems can include a wide variety of enterprise applications such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Electronic Content Management (ECM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
The following video demonstrates the integration of Autodesk Vault Manufacturing with an ERP system (Axapta) using Autodesk Vault Connect.
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Managing Items with Vault Manufacturing 2010
September 21, 2009 11:30 PMby Brian SchanenOne of the significant improvements to Vault Manufacturing in 2010 is the introduction of state based document securities. This functionality has been leveraged to manage access to files associated with Released items and introduces a new, more flexible way to manage CAD file access.
From the Tools > Administration dialog > Items tab selecting “Security” displays the Access Control List used to determine permissions for files linked to Items outside of Work-In-Process (I.e. files linked to Items in Released, For Review and Obsolete states).
By default this is configured to permit “Read” only access for “Everybody” but here we will go through the steps required to modify these access permissions to allow a more flexible process to make administrative file changes not constituting item revisions.
While every file, associated to a Released Item, is locked as read only, no changes are possible; this prevents unauthorized or accidental design changes. Using the access control list (ACL) we can now create a specific user permitted to make minor file changes to correct spelling mistakes, add missing dimensions or update title block information. This type of modification could be referred to as “Quick Change”. Create this workflow with the following steps:
Create an Administrative Change user (QC for example) with the correct rights and roles (Doc Editor Level1 at least) – DO NOT include this user in any groups and make sure this user is assigned a password!Remove “Everybody” from the ACL and Add all groups and set them to “Allow” ‘Read’ and “Deny” ‘Modify’ and ‘Delete’Change the QC user access to “Allow” ‘Read’ and ‘Modify’; make sure to “Deny” ‘Delete’.
You can now, as required, log into the Vault through AutoCAD, Inventor, etc. as QC user, make the modifications (Change Title block on Drawings/Migrate Model files etc., add missing dimensions, etc.) while Item consumers still access the latest effective release. When finished with files updates check the file back in and log out of user QC, you now need to update the ITEM.Updating the Item without 'bumping' the Revision
With the file(s) now modified ensure nobody else is logged into Vault during the item(s) update. Log in as a Vault Administrator and go to the Tools > Administration dialog and select the Item tab.
1. Click on “Rules…” and select transition ‘From Released To WIP’; set Bump Revision to None (or Bump Secondary Revision if history needs to be kept)
2. Select the ITEM(s) requiring update, RMB click and select “Change State”; then select “Work In Progress”.
3. Right click again and “Update” the items
4. “Change State” to “Released”
5. Repeat Step 2 to restore the rule on Released -> WIP to “Bump Primary Revision”
You have now made your “Quick Change” to your files over time reducing the need to repeat the sensitive procedure required to change Revision Bumping and Item update. This can be done as a batch process in a very short time space (typically one evening of afterhours work). -
Video - Creating Reports with Autodesk Vault Collaboration and Manufacturing
September 15, 2009 12:05 AMby Brian SchanenAutodesk Vault Collaboration and Vault Manufacturing provide one-touch report generation based on search results and using pre-defined templates. Such templates will allow for custom report formats suiting a variety of customer needs.
Users can rapidly generate reports based on search results to gain visibility into engineering productivity, design progress, and data evolution. You can develop standard reporting templates, making it easier for everyone to access and analyze critical data. This allows a company to quickly report on items to gain visibility into the important tasks, performance, and design progress. For instance, you can analyze data points such as average time to close engineering changes, number of changes requested by department, average versions, etc.
This begins by selecting the new ‘Report’ button is now available from the Find dialog. The user is prompted to pick from a list of pre-defined report templates before presenting the full-color report in that format (above). The templates are completely customizable, and new ones can be added to the list.
I have compiled a video overview of this new functionality for 2010, posted out on Autodesk’s YouTube channel. Enjoy!
-Brian Schanen