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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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Vault and Inventor 2009 Integration - it's the little things...
April 25, 2008, 03:53 PM Brian SchanenFor those of you that have seen Vault grow over the years, I have a great post for you to read. I had been a Vault proponent as a reseller since the TruEVault days, way back to Inventor 5.3 (that’s old school) and watched it through the introduction of Productstream and beyond. Then I joined Autodesk to be a part of the design of the Data Management solution. In my opinion, the program as a whole has matured exponentially.
Now, the Inventor add-in prior to release 2009 remained largely unchanged – until this release. I would like to present some of the quality-of-life improvements made possible through a combined effort from the Inventor and Data Management teams. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a huge difference in the daily workflow with a product.
Single Step Check In
Save time when checking in work into the Vault. The Add Files and Check In commands have been combined to provide a single check in process that automatically adds files that are not already in the Vault. Check In operations are faster due to improvements in DWF publishing and optimizations made in the Check In command. In addition, you can now access the Check In command directly from the Vault browser.
Direct Access from File Dialogs
Access the Vault directly from frequently used file open/place dialogs. Click on the Vault icons located in these dialogs to work with files from the Vault. The Vault icon is available on the File Open, Place Component and Derived Part dialogs as well as the Base View dialog in the Drawing Manager environment and the Create View dialog in the Presentation environment. In addition, there is improved support for placing components with iMates.
Browser Performance
Experience better Vault browser performance with large assemblies. Browser overhead has been reduced by performing updates to the status icons only when the browser is accessed and only for items visible at the top level. Lower level status information is retrieved only when then assembly item is expanded.
On the topic of performance, I highly suggest checking out the new support for Inventor’s LOD Suppression through the Open from Vault dialog. This provides faster open and checkouts when working with complex assemblies. When you call out specific Level of Detail or Design View representations in the Open from Vault dialog, Inventor 2009 downloads only those files required for the selected representation reducing server traffic and increasing checkout speed.
Separate Server Login (Dual sign-on)
This is ideal for companies using Productstream Replicator, as you can configure separate servers for the Vault database and Content Center (local). You now have the option to specify and log into a separate server for Content Center libraries and the Vault. From the File menu, select Autodesk Data Management Server > Connection Options.
Separating content and vault servers provides more options for optimizing performance in large installations. This is also helpful for mobile users to work with Inventor and Content Center in an offline mode.
Inventor Integration
A new prompt is added to save files before checking allowing for an automated save without cancelling the action. This prompt can also be hidden with Yes as default, allowing for a more seamless workflow within Inventor.
The Productstream Property Write back function will automatically check out every file that isn’t currently locked ensuring that all properties are up to date. (Only when the command is manually selected, not when it is run via prompts.)
The Check Out command can be run on checked out files, allowing you to check out all children without first checking the file back in or undoing the check out.
Support for Inventor’s Substitution in the Level of Detail command with full support for an accurate BOM when checked in. Note the icon displays in Vault and this file classification is searchable.
A Vault Tool Bar has been added to Inventor. This needs to be turned on manually and is a great improvement in Vault interaction. In fact, you can do most of your work now without switching over to the Vault browser.
This release eliminates removes unnecessary interaction and improves the performance of check in and check out operations by avoiding steps. I invite you to check out (pun intended) these enhancements to Vault workflows with Inventor 2009. Enjoy!
-Brian Schanen
Comments
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May 2, 2008 02:20 PM Dan Johnson
Brian, I like the improvements... Dan Johnson
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September 28, 2008 11:56 PM Dipankar Das
Hello Brian, We are trying to see if Vault would help us re-structure our Inventor folder structure (which is a mess now). Do you think we should structure Inventor first or Vault first. Thanks, Dip
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