Under the Hood

AnyCAD? I Can Put What in Vault Now?

New to the Autodesk Inventor 2016 release is the AnyCAD feature - this is an extension of the old Inventor import capabilities allowing you now to create a file reference to a native 3rd party 3D model like a Creo or Solidworks file without having to translate it and create new files.

This has a lot of advantages as you can take a supplier's native model, reference it into Inventor and move on - if the supplier has an update, they send it across and you update the reference - simple.  But wait, where does Vault fit into this?

Good news is that the Vault 2016 Inventor add-in supports Inventor AnyCAD, once you have added your 3rd party model to an assembly for example you can check into Vault as usual and all the references are uploaded complete with structure.  You can now open the Inventor assembly on other machines, insert the referenced 3rd party model in other locations, carry out all your normal Inventor file management and even change states or create a Bill of Materials from the mixed assembly.

So this means then that Vault supports all 3rd party files now?  No, not so I am afraid, and this is an important point.

This is an Inventor add-in feature, meaning Vault manages 3rd party files in the context of the Inventor model - you can rename the Inventor model, move it, copy it, change properties, but NOT for the 3rd party files, you can't even add them without the Inventor file - you need to have all sorts of add in capabilities to do that.

So how do I update the AnyCAD references?  This is pretty straight forward, you simply download the Inventor assembly from Vault (Get + Check Out Files), copy the suppliers new model over the top of the old one and open Inventor.  Inventor will update the references and you check it back in.

What happens if you DO have add-ins for the third party files?  Well the good news is you will have more functionality and we will cover this case in a later post.  For the average user though this simple approach makes it easy to use reference data in Inventor and make it available in Vault.

AnyCAD is the first of several new Inventor add-in features we'll cover, ensuring that we provide the best in class integrations for Autodesk CAD.

-Allan

Roll On the Roll Back!

I thought we should start with this one - its a hot topic and a pretty cool feature.  We have had the concept of revision roll back in Vault Professional with items for some time now, but alas, never for files.  

This meant every time "someone" (not you) made a mistake by changing file state (or more likely changed state as instructed, prior to a change of heart, again not by you) and automatically bumping the file revision, you were stuck with a new revision of the file you could not get rid of.  

Pretty much your only options here were to document that the revision was made in error or delete the file and re-add it with the correct revision thereby losing your history.

In 2015 R2  we combined the file and item lifecycle schemes, and turned off roll back for everyone, so we now in 2016 add roll back capabilities to both files and items - and here's how it works:

Say you take your released file and change state - put it into an editable state like work in progress, creating a new file version and bumping the file revision.

You can now go about your work, maybe modify the file (creating more new versions) blissfully unaware your new revision is destined for the junk heap.

When word comes down that the revision is no longer desired, you simply highlight the file, and from the actions menu select "Roll Back Lifecycle State Change" 

Vault will prompt you that you are now about to revert to the previous state and all revisions after that point will be deleted.

Select OK and there you have it - the file reverts to Released, the Revision is set back to the previous and any file versions created after the state change are removed - like nothing ever happened.

But what if you have changed multiple files and need to roll back all of them - can I do it in one hit?  No, you need to do it one by one - if you have dependencies you need to start at the top level to roll back the parent file then down the structure one by one until all files are at the old revision and versions are cleaned up.

Can I roll back more than one revision?  No, roll back can only be done once and is limited to state changes, so if you put into "Work in Progress" and then "In Review" - you cannot roll back to the last released state.

Is that it?  Pretty much, that covers the main points, you can read up in help for more details on who can roll back and any other specific limitations.  

In the mean time I certainly hope this doesn't inspire a rush to "revise first ask questions later", but its a very handy feature to get you out of a jam and something we've been hearing about for a while, so enjoy!

-Allan

Autodesk Vault 2016 and your ideas

Vault Professional 2016 starts shipping for many lucky soles today (cue fireworks) and we're pretty excited about that!  Today therefore also marks the beginning of my semi-regular feature blogs on the new capabilities, starting with all your new ideas implemented as part of this release.

Vault 2016 of course includes all the mid-year Vault 2015 R2 enhancements (see the Vault Professional and Vault Workgroup 2015 R2 ideastation list here) while adding capabilities to new copy design, completing many of the item and BOM enhancements as well as introducing Inventor AnyCAD support, and finally - the crowd favorite - rollback file revision.

Fireworks photo: Anthony Cramp

Again, over the coming weeks we will dive into the new capabilities but for those of you interested in the Ideastation details read on below for the complete list of implemented ideas.  

Remember if your idea is still not accepted, keep voting, meanwhile we will keep working away on those accepted ideas and hope to be able to showcase some more great ideastation ideas in the near future!

-Allan

File Change State Rollback: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/281/page/3 

This had 89 kudos, the most commented request in Vault Ideastation with 31 comments.

Role Item Editor 2 is granted the permission to manually purge Item:http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/itemeditor2-should-be-granted-right-to-perform-quot-purge-item/idi-p/4511195

Flexible Purge http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/make-purge-item-command-flexible-alike-purge-command-for-files/idi-p/5040488

Prompt before moving a file to another folder: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/prompt-before-moving-file-to-another-folder/idi-p/4331587

Search in BOM View: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/multiple-bom-views/idi-p/5369665#comments

Column filter in Parts Only/ First Level View: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/item-bom-property-filter-removed-from-2015/idi-p/5318827

Collapse All and Expand All in Where Used (Item context): http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/collapse-all-removed-from-item-where-used-in-vault-professional/idi-p/5348103

Resize Description field within ECO dialog: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1989

Carry out pre-checks prior to install: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/move-some-prechecks-to-the-beginning-of-the-vault-installation/idi-p/5026386

   

Different object, same old interface

Over the last few weeks we have outlined changes to the Item workflow engine in Vault Professional 2015 R2 bringing it in line with the much more flexible file based lifecycle schemes.  One of the nice side benefits of this fundamental change is increased user interface consolidation, making configuring and working with items much more straight forward.

After install, at least for administrators and folks who have been following this topic on the blog, the first thing to notice is the separate Item lifecycle option and edit dialog has been removed and all Item based lifecycles controls are integrated into the single lifecycles UI.  Similar to what we have done in previous years with categories are revision schemes, there is now a single set of tools on the Behaviors tab.  Of course there is still a separate Items tab for other item specific settings and controls, but the set up should now be more discoverable and user friendly.

The second part of this is the end user commands.  Where items had a separate set of commands to do things like change the revision or category (done exclusively from inside the actual Item dialog) these controls along with change state have been aligned with the file controls, meaning that users can select one or more items from the main pane in the item master and access these commands, which are presented in the familiar looking file action dialog.

 

The new dialogs present a far more visual, interactive view of the current action, making it easier to understand the command and results.

These changes may seem small, but represent a big step in providing a more user friendly and consistent experience in Vault and enhances some key user workflows making it quicker and easier to get your designs released to manufacture correctly.

- Allan

Creating Your New Item Lifecycle Scheme - Part 3: Bringing it to a Close

At this point we have created our new Item Lifecycle Scheme in Vault Professional 2015 R2, mapped out all the transition requirements and actions, defined the state based security for items and their attached files making our job almost complete.

The last few pieces now relate to the item state definitions as they relate to work-flow and system behaviors.

There are two important check boxes to start outlining this item behavior, defining whether the selected state is a "Released" or "Obsolete" state.   

As our new custom released state can have any name and administrators can have more than one released state (think "Released to Construction" and "As Built" for example) we need to flag which states can be considered "Released".  The "Released" state is used to control things like our transition rules where child items must be released to proceed with a release operation on the parent.

Similarly, when we want to restrict release of files that contain "Obsolete" data, we need to identify that state information here by checking "This is an Obsolete State". 

Note that signifying this state as released or obsolete does not affect end user access, or our own transitioning rules - it merely informs system processes like conditional rules on lifecycles or item export settings.  Typically a WIP or Review state has no special behaviors and would not be explicitly tagged.

This tab also contains the system purge controls for the lifecycle state.  Another great new Item features in Vault Professional R2 is the ability to view the item versions we generate as modify the properties, BOM etc. (We have basically always created versions, we just didn't make them visible).  Users can now (as they do with files) display versions or only revisions of items depending on their requirements and can purge unnecessary item versions.

For each state, the administrator selects whether or not to keep every version of that particular state on purge, remove all versions, or perhaps keep last or first and last.

In the example above, when we identify the state as a released state, there is no option to remove all versions - you have to have at least one - and I would suggest doing the same for obsolete states. The rest is at your discretion, I always like to err on the side of caution though and perhaps save at least one version for each state, in case you are wondering what changed after review for example.

So there you have it, a completely configured item lifecycle scheme with all behavioral conditions applied, as a final touch though, jump in and add some Comments.  

The comments are the default text that appears when you execute a lifecycle transition, they're designed to help others understand the state intent, like "Sent for Customer Approval" or "Approved by Line Manager" for example, these can be edited when needed but its a nice touch to have a clear descriptive comment for the lifecycle action.

 - Allan

Creating Your New Item Lifecycle Scheme - Part 2: Making it Secure

We left off Part 1 setting up our Item lifecycle state names and transitions, the next requirement is to look at the state based security for the item as well as their associated files, something that has become vastly more configurable and flexible with Vault Professional 2015 R2.

The Autodesk Vault Professional legacy item behavior had a simplified security model where Items in working state were editable by any user with Item edit permissions, while all other states (In Review, Released or Obsolete) were locked from user editing, save an administrators ability to delete in certain cases.  

Likewise, if desired, administrators could lock the associated or linked files once the item moves out of Work in Progress state.  This file locking did have some flexibility with a user access control list managing the linked file access rules, but this could also be considered a limited security model as all locked states were predevined and had this same set of associated file behaviors.

 

The new Item Lifecycle configuration however allows users to specify access to the item and its linked files on a state by state basis with much greater refinement.

From the lifecycle edit dialog select the appropriate state and from the security tab you can start to configure item access controls.  As with the file security settings you will see here that the administrator can add users or groups and set individual access for each.  Noting that this access control list is implicit, meaning that as soon as a user or group is permitted or denied access all other users and groups not added to the list will be excluded or denied any access to the item in that state.

There is also an option to remove state based security and simply make the item editable to any users with Item editing permissions, more of a legacy style approach.

As a good practice administrators should retain read only controls on released items and typically any review or obsolete states.  These could be augmented with some specific administrator overrides if so desired (delete permissions etc) but its important to keep this logical and maintain lifecycle integrity. 

In order to manage user access to the items associated or linked files in each state, select to configure security for associated files.  Here the administrator will be able to configure another access control list which manages user access to any file associated with the item in that specific state.

As we have seen in Part 1 of this article it is possible to ensure that associated files are released prior to transitioning an item to a new state, but we do not "synchronise" or mirror the item and file lifecycle states (even if they are assigned to the same lifecycle scheme).  So the security we apply here is independent of any other file based security and works as it has in previous releases in that regard.  Once again it is worth considering whether your company should use just file based lifecycle security, just item enforced security or build a combination of the two.

By default, the item state is applied to the files (users have same access to the associated files as they do the item), but administrators can choose to set up unique file based access controls (Custom Security) or clear any security overrides in that state (removing file based controls).

By completing these steps for each state we will have a nicely refined set of transition controls, item state based security and associated file controls, meaning the lifecycle configuration is almost complete.  

We will stop here though and pick up the last few settings in Part 3 of this blog arch looking at setting the state controls including released or obsolete state identification and purge controls.

-Allan

Autodesk Vault Professional 2015 R2 Item Lifecycles

So its finally here - the flexible configurable lifecycle schemes you have been enjoying for years with documents in Vault Professional is now available for Items.

What does this mean for you the existing Item user you ask?  What enormous changes will you notice straight away?  Not much to begin with actually - we have taken care to make sure your existing Item workflow is migrated across to this new environment "as is" and ready to roll.

Logging into the Admin options and heading straight for the behaviors tab (no more lifecycle controls on the Item tab) you will find a new lifecycle scheme named "Item Release Process".  This scheme is applied by default to all item categories, with all the same lifecycle states duplicated, right down to your own state display names, as seen in the image below comparing a 2015 lifecycle configuration on the top right with the new R2 scheme on the left.

OK, so there is one change - your new scheme has a Quick-Change state tacked on to the end, this state has been added to maintain the administrator controlled "Skip Revision Bump" option added a little while back to provide a "quasi" Quick Change experience (highlighted below).

So now you have a fully fledged Quick Change State for items, migration also takes care of the security aspects, with the quick change state transition limited to Released files and controlled by administrators only, as it was in your previous Vault version. 

This is true for all state transitions, Vault Professional 2015 R2 respects the same user roles as prior releases, meaning if you were not given adequate permissions to change item states in the past you cannot change item states now, even without transition rules.  

We migrate a few other things too, your revision bump settings, property compliance controls, release dependents and linked file rules (must be up to date), your linked file security settings (locking linked files - though more on that topic later) your item state based securities including the ability to read, write and delete items (Administrator Only).

So without touching any of the new configuration options you are set up ready to go with the same item environment you have always known.  Here's the cool bit though, with flexible workflows, you can now switch on transition rules for every state change, and refine which item users are allowed to transition specific states, making the item release process much more "administrator friendly" and well..... secure.  

You can also create whole new states, want a Pre-Release Check state?  Make one.  Want an As Built Released state?  You can make one of those too.  You can start to better define transition actions, control access across states for different users and groups, add and remove item user privileges, manage the type of link file controls imposed by state and by link type, and if you have the time even more.

So buckle up and stay tuned as we dive into the big new world of what flexible item lifecycles will do for you, or maybe just keep using items them the way you always did - totally up to you!

-Allan

R2 is Here with a Whole Bunch Of Your Good Ideas!

This month sees the release of Autodesk Vault 2015 R2, a subscription only release goaled at providing a number of really great Item and BOM enhancements, a new Copy Design tool and a new Office Client to improve change process and approval participation for non-CAD users.

Over the coming weeks we will do a deep dive into all the new functionality, and take a look at some of the critical user requests we have addressed with this release.  In all we have now implemented a further 19 user ideas from the ideastation with this release.  For those of you looking for some more light reading the implemented idea list can be found below - hopefully something you voted for made the cut, if not you better keep voting and hopefully your idea makes it next time.

Tune in next blog either way as we start to break out the new feature detail.

-Allan 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/copydesign-customizable-window/idc-p/5262987#M2225 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1020 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1810

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1821

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/2152 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/copy-design-without-downloading-unwanted-files/idi-p/4751567

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/27

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/2043

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/copy-design-gt-rename-duplcate-files-during-process/idi-p/5184825 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/vault-copy-design-and-quot-read-only-quot-categories/idi-p/3701976 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1040

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/1310   

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideapage/blog-id/2/article-id/2086

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/bom-udp/idi-p/5014194

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/item-master-improvements/idi-p/3772976

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/item-bom-improvements/idi-p/4319428

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/item-history-needs-dramatically-improved/idi-p/4301686

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/change-category-on-multiple-items/idi-p/3637414

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-ideastation/reports-for-boms/idi-p/3507788

A Higher Standard for your Routed Systems and Frames

Autodesk Vault Data Standard, made available to subscription customers last year, has been updated and enhanced in Vault 2015 to address a number of additional standard inventor work-flows specifically related to routed system and frame generator.

Previously users leveraging some of these smart design tools in Inventor were unable to apply the same data standards and detail as they did with general inventor content (enforcing file name and property requirements on ALL new files for example).  This could be troublesome especially considering the volume of files being produced as part of tube and pipe runs or frame layouts.

For 2015 the new Data Standard tool is once again triggered when the user commits a save operation resulting in new file creation but has now been configured so as to permit a simple, consolidated approach to editing detail across a number of files that mat be generated via frame generator or routed system tools. 

The data standard tab implemented in 2015 is sectioned and smart enough to arrange editable files by their type (in a tube and pipe context for example breaking it into the run assembly files, route parts and pipe segments or "custom library files") and permits the user to manipulate these separately, applying a single value across all instances or allowing the user to work down the file list in each section entering required unique values per part.

As with the regular data standard interface, users are able to customize the displayed properties, set optional or required values and control other behaviors triggered by the operation, meaning all in all we now have a more complete approach to manage all new file creation and a super efficient way to modify files created in these inventor based tools.

- Allan

Installing Like a Pro!

Hmm, maybe we should have started with this post, but for those of you who have not installed Autodesk Vault Professional 2015 yet (or maybe weren't paying attention during the install), we have made some pretty nice changes designed to ease the pain through that stressful time.

Project Sync

The first thing we have done is make Project Sync 2015 available under the Tools and Utilities section of the 2015 Vault Professional Client media.  This historically has been a separate download and in fact prior versions of this tool will still be available on the Buzzsaw site, but 2015 makes it much easier to implement at the time of install.  

Job Processor

Based on user feedback we have also now made the Job Processor a separate install option, meaning it cab be added or removed during install or un-installed separately via add/remove programs if you change your mind after. Installing a job processor on every client is unnecessary, result in multiple licenses being consumed from the same client as well as impacting the productivity of the CAD user.

‘sa’ password

Finally, in response to a number of customer requests, we have modified the server install behavior, enabling users to install without having to use the default SQL server system administrator (sa) account. This adds a lot of flexibility to high-security environments where there is a strong password policy in place or restrictions on use of the default SQL ‘sa’ account.

All in all the above represents some simple changes designed to streamline and simplify the install process, we hope makes a big difference to system admins and users alike. 

-Allan