Lifecycle Definitions with Autodesk Vault Workgroup

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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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  Lifecycle Definitions with Autodesk Vault Workgroup
  March 30, 2009, 11:59 PM Brian Schanen

  With the release of Vault Workgroup 2010, there are several key areas of the product that focus on Release Management at the file level. These include:

  • Lifecycles and Security
  • Revision Management
  • User Defined Properties
  • Categories

  Now, it’s important to note that while these all go hand-in-hand, a company can ‘opt-in’ to this functionality at their leisure. In other words, you can utilize a phased deployment of these features, perhaps over several weeks. The first one we’ll cover is Lifecycles and Security, since this is an immediate benefit of Vault Workgroup. Lifecycle states make sure the right user gets access to the right files at the right time, protecting your data integrity.

  

  Lifecycle Definitions

  Autodesk Vault Workgroup comes with four Lifecycle Definitions out- of-the-box:

  • Basic Release Process
  • Flexible Release Process
  • Simple Release Process
  • Long Lead Time Release Process

  

  Each Lifecycle Definition is a collection of Lifecycle states and rules built around them. These definitions ensure that files will go through the appropriate steps before getting Released. In addition,the provided lifecycle definitions can be copied and edited. In addition, customer lifecycle definitions can be created. They range from simple Work In Progress/Released up to multi-stage processes. For example, the Flexible Release Process is a  manufacturing  type workflow and is similar to Basic, with an additional state. This process uses:

  • Work In Progress
  • For Review
  • Released
  • Quick Change
  • Obsolete

   

  Lifecycle States

  States declare the stage of work a particular file is in. Note that custom lifecycle states can be added to a Lifecycle definition for additional control over a product's lifecycle.

  

  Transitions

  Vault comes with a configurable transition from one lifecycle to another. Using groups and permissions, administrators can define what the next available state from a given Lifecycle is.

  

  Each state to state Transition includes the ability to define Criteria, Actions, and Security control over which users or groups can perform the Transition. In addition, changes made by the Vault Administrator are immediately recognized by the users. This provides a flexible data management workflow tool that can work with a company's needs, not against it.

  Security

  The Security model of a lifecycle definition can be configured to meet the existing process within a company. Each Vault user or group can be allowed or denied the ability to read, modify, or delete a file. This provides a granular level of security for access to files. In the example below, the Engineering group has full control over all files in this particular state (Work In Progress).

  

  Purge Control over Revisions

  The Control tab sets the purge expectation for each Lifecycle state. In the image below, this tab contains the option to declare the state a 'Release' state, which has implications during the Purge command.

  

   

  -Brian Schanen

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