Under the Hood

Feature Friday: Are you Affected by Effectivity?

Many years ago, in my school English lessons, I was taught the difference between the words ‘affect’ and ‘effect’. Even to this day, though, I’ve never been quite sure of their proper usage, and often find myself being corrected on it. One thing I am certain of, though, is the powerful effect of ‘Date Effectivity’ in PLM 360, and how it can positively affect the product development process (or should that be ‘affect’ and ‘effect’?).

Date Effectivity is a function which is applied to a Bill of Materials (BoM), and was introduced in the recent latest release of PLM 360. This capability allows a particular revision of a component part or subassembly to be assigned ‘effectivity’ dates which, essentially, define a period of time during which that item is valid within that BoM. When a BoM contains that item, it will show whatever revision of it is relevant at that point in time. You can choose to view such a BoM as it would appear at a given point in the past, present, or future. This capability allows improved and more flexible planning, for example for Manufacturing and Purchasing departments, and more accurate traceability of previous configurations of a BoM.

Further details of how this powerful new capability works is outlined in our PLM TV User Briefing video …

 

 

System Administrators can choose whether to enable this capability, and where, in the release cycle, it comes into play. Effectivity is configured in the Lifecycle Editor facility of the Setup menu. Within the editor, we can switch the ability to apply date effectivity on at any one or more of the release lifecycle stages. For example, if we want to enable it at the ‘Production’ stage, we right-click at that point to edit it …

 

 

… then simply click on the ‘Effectivity’ tick box, and select ‘Accept’ to enable it …

 

 

Once enabled, every time a user signs off the revisioning step of the Change Order workflow to move an item to ‘Production’ status, they will have the option to set a date effectivity.

So, if you’re managing Bills of Materials today in PLM 360, be sure to check out date effectivity, and see how it can really affect the effectiveness of your product development process (please correct me if the grammar in my last sentence is wrong!).

-- Gavin England

-- Photo: Dictionary.com

Closing the Loop (PLM 360 links to Vault data)

This week’s PLM 360 tip covers how to establish a link from PLM 360 to Autodesk Vault. Now, for review we know that Vault Professional integrates with PLM 360, but this post covers a clever way to round-trip the process. This will involve some minor tweaks to any existing Workspace by creating a new field. First, let’s start with how we would get to the Vaulted file.

Whether you’re targeting a Vault Pro Item, Change Order, or a File, there is an option under the File pull down menu called Send Link. See image below:

Furthermore, you can shift-select a group of data and send it, and it will group all the Vault objects together. The key here is the link that it produces. In my example here I’ve chosen one Item. Note that is creates a link to the exact Vault object – Item, CO, or File.

Now that we’ve established one way to get the link to Vault data (yes, there are more elaborate ways) let’s focus on getting PLM 360 ready for the link. Log in to PLM 360 under an administrative account, and go to Administration>Setup and find your target Workspace. I’ve chosen Items and BOMs for my example.

Next, expand the Workspace and click the Item Details Tab entry. Click Add field and enter a name like ‘Vaulted File’ or something that establishes that this is a record that resides in Vault, as opposed to a url to another location.

Drag the field over to a section and Save Layout. Go back to the Workspace front end and choose an Item to edit.

Now, go copy the link to the link and paste it into the field you created. Save the item and examine the new data in the field. This is the link directly to the Vault file. But how does one use this?

Here’s where your mileage will vary. Depending on the browser you’re running and the settings therein, you will have to use a couple of techniques. First thing is to click the url.

If you have access to a Vault client, this will download a .acr file. Different browsers had this differently as mentioned, but the key here is to open the .acr file. By the way, this is the same functionality as getting an email from Vault Professional Change Orders when you are on the routing list.

However you chose to open the .acr, just be sure to set up your Vault client to ‘Automatically log in next session’ as this will save you the step of entering your name, password. And if I may suggest, use the Windows Authentication combined with auto log in for the best user experience. Finally, you will be brought directly to the Vault Item, CO, or File – providing you have rights to see it, but that’s another Blog post isn’t it?

Autodesk Vault and PLM 360 Integration

Great news for Autodesk Vault and Autodesk PLM 360 users! The Vault/PLM360 synchronization utility is in the final rounds of testing, and I have compiled a sneak peek video on the integration  - here – out on the PLM 360 Wiki Video page.

The first phase of the integration will provide a seamless push of Vault Professional (2013) Items to PLM 360 upon moving to the Release state. In the image below, this Bill of Material has been 'Released' in Vault Professional, and is sent to Autodesk PLM 360 (next image).

All Item, Bill of Material, structure, rev level, and quantity will be sent to PLM. In addition, select Item properties (UDP’s) will populate and update Items in PLM 360.

The sync configuration will involve setting up an optional Vault user account (similar to ‘Job User’), choosing a PLM 360 tenant, configuring a Workspace, and mapping Vault Properties to PLM 360 fields. Please see the video for more details. This is for Vault Professional 2013 only, and due out shortly.

In the mean time, consider brushing up on Vault Professional Items (hint, hint). To help prepare you, I’ll be reviewing Vault Item theory on this blog and calling up posts and AU papers from the past.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/PLM_360/enu/community/Videos/Autodesk_Vault_Professional_to_PLM_360_Synchronization

Enjoy!

 

-Brian Schanen

Vault 2012 Feature Spotlight: Improved Where Used Analysis

Within Vault Family 2012, the Where Used tab provides an additional level of detail by allowing user to see not only parent files, but Items and Change Orders. This provides all users with a simple, single access point to analyze the impact of change to Files.

Now, by default, all of the Where Used options are not checked. Click the filter icon and check the necessary boxes to display all ‘parent’ objects related to a file.

 

-Brian Schanen

Autodesk Vault and AutoCAD Mechanical

Autodesk Vault provides a powerful integration with AutoCAD Mechanical. In the following video watch as Markus takes us from geometry creation inside AutoCAD Mechanical, through to Bill of Material and Item creation within Vault Professional’s Item Master.

 

-Brian Schanen

Custom DWF Watermarks in Vault Pro 2011

Autodesk Vault Professional 2011 can apply watermarks to 2D DWF renditions of drawing files to communicate to consumers the status of the design, helping to alleviate accidental production against an incomplete article. However, the 2011 release now introduces the ability to utilize Vault properties as part of the value of the watermark, providing consumers with more dynamic watermarking information within the visualization file, helping keep them up to date. Further, watermarks may now be multiple lines of data, providing even more useful information.

-Brian Schanen

Another one for the Admins – easy configuration with Vault Pro 2011

Administrators and users alike will find more consistency between the file environment and the item environment with the Autodesk Vault Professional 2011. Property sets are now based on categories for file and item objects, making the administration and creation workflows consistent between the two environments.

Further, just as files used rules to assign categories to a file object in the previous release, rules may now be used to determine which category gets assigned to an item, added more configurability and flexibility to your deployment. Finally, categories bring the added benefit of exposing multiple revision schemes to items, now giving users the flexibility they need to change the revision scheme on an item as business demands.

-Brian Schanen

Improved Usability with Vault 2011

A new video has been posted to the Autodesk Youtube channel highlighting some of the customer-driven enhancements to the Autodesk Vault 2011 family. Check out the video to see new features like:

• Change Orders on Documents
• Customized watermarks on 2D DWF
• Office Document viewing on the Preview tab
• New Transmittal Report functionality.

We’ll focus on each of these soon in further detail. Enjoy!

-Brian Schanen

Managing CAD Components through Items

Today we’ll continue the previous post on Items and discuss their relation with CAD files

Items are easily created from CAD files (Inventor, AutoCAD Mechanical, Electrical, etc.) by promoting file data into a new Item using the 'Assign Item' feature. Note that these can also be created in a manual manner, similar to creating contacts in an email system. Upon the creation of an Item, a unique identifier is assigned using on of the available standard numbering schemes as defined by the system administrator. These components contain a list of system defined properties, such as Item Number, Item Type, and Item Title and Description. These properties will help users easily decipher a particular component from others. These components will maintain an interactive record of their revision history, including changes made to properties, associated and attached files, along with bill of material changes.

Each Item may contain a list of other items that it depends upon, creating a bill of materials (BOM). Users may build a BOM by simply editing the Item and adding another Item as a child. Further, as items are generated from the design files and listed in the Item master, a complete and accurate bill of materials is automatically created based on the assembly structure of the design found within the vaulted design files. By directly extracting the bill of materials, the chance for errors is virtually removed that are commonly found with manual methods.

Why is this important? Companies that track this data using paper based processes or using tactics such as spreadsheet management may now keep a living electronic record of their products. At any given time and date, users will be able to review a revision based or time based view of a product, including the bill of materials, the usage, as well as all related property information and access all related files. This permits companies to quickly and easily access the data they need to support their customers, as well as obtain a better understanding of how change has impacted or will impact their designs. Lastly, search and reuse of existing data is easier with a vast database full of product property information.

-Brian Schanen

A Closer look at Items

While engineering and design departments typically talk in terms of drawings and CAD files, purchasing, manufacturing, and inventory talk in terms of Items. Vault’s definition of an Item is the master record for all entries found in an ERP system. Think of an Item as the unique identifier that tracks all related data to a physical part, assembly, or document. In order to more effectively bridge this informational gap between engineering and the rest of the manufacturing organization, design data placed within Autodesk Vault can be assigned to an Item within the Item Master in Autodesk Vault Manufacturing. The Item Master is represented as a grid of all Items found within Autodesk Vault Manufacturing.

The Items found in Autodesk Vault Manufacturing's Item Master hold the bulk of the information that is shared with the rest of the manufacturing organization. To begin, the Item is the gateway for enterprise to get to key engineering data. The Item keeps track of the key associated CAD data and the correct versions that are required to properly build and manufacturing a product. Further, all critical data that will assist in manufacturing and supporting a product, such as specifications, supplier and catalog information, and engineering calculations can be attached to the Item for future reference. With one key source for the enterprise to look for data, the chance for errors due to personal looking at the wrong data is greatly reduced.

Key information, such as item number, title, description, revision, and type are all stored within the Item. More information can easily be added to the Items. Users can add customizable information to an Item record to provide additional documentation such as plant location or design group. In addition, you can customize fields in the Item record to display important manufacturing or production information without the need for special administration.

Next post we’ll examine Item creation from CAD files in Vault Explorer. Stay tuned…

-Brian Schanen