Under the Hood

Autodesk Factory and Vault 2017

One of the most notable updates for 2017 comes to us courtesy of the Autodesk Factory Team who have built a really powerful integration for Vault Professional that allows users to:

• Publish Factory assets to Vault
• Consume assets directly from Vault
• Manage factory layouts
• Carry out where used analysis

Where previously users were prompted to store assets on a local drive or in the cloud we can now choose Vault, offering a local secure store with enhanced asset searching and trace-ability.

But not so fast - you do need to first up set up your Vault with the new Factory configuration (by creating a new Vault or importing the config to your existing Vault) which adds a number of new menu items as well as Factory specific properties and capabilities.

Perhaps the two most notable options you will see in your Vault Explorer is the layout and asset views.  The Factory Layout view, once a factory layout is checked into Vault, provides access to which assets are used in the layout, and how many other layouts are using a particular asset.

Similarly the Factory Asset view displays data from an asset perspective to determine where an asset is used, how many versions of the asset are available, and instance level details.

How do you get these assets in and out of Vault though you ask?  Easy, the new add-in provides a Vault option in the asset browser that mirrors the structure found in Vault - users are able to add and move assets to Vault from the local drive and retrieve assets directly from Vault via the same asset browser.

For more information on how to configure and use check out the Factory Design help here and start leveraging these great new capabilities to manage your asset models, layout and usage.

- Allan

Vault and Inventor - New Versions, Compatibility and All That

As many will be aware the Inventor team has provided subscription users with updated builds of Inventor 2016 containing a bunch of cool enhancements, that you can check out here:

Whats new in Inventor 2016 R2 - http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-E56EC2F6-631D-4228-932A-312223C191F6

Whats new in Inventor 2016 R3 - http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-1C080C08-8953-481A-B2DD-A2F8AAAB594F

All good and well you say, but what does that mean for Vault users?  Are patches required?  New versions of Vault, migration and client installs? Can we even install these updated builds?  

Well the good news is, none of the above is an issue.  Users simply need to update the Inventor install and continue on using Vault - there is no client side or server updates required to support the new versions of Inventor 2016.

We continue to work closely with the Inventor team to ensure minimal disruption through patching and update releases as we look at better ways to deliver functionality to you guys without costly migration and downtime.

So feel free to install, test and play with the new Inventor builds, or, add to your IT wishlist for Christmas without having to worry about your Vault add-in keeping pace.

- Allan

Autodesk Inventor Welcomes Vault Into its Home (Page)

Rounding out the Vault Inventor add-in enhancements for 2016 (and maybe one from 2015 R2) the Inventor team has added Vault project details and file status to their homepage while we implemented support for drawing underlays and changed the method used for calculating modified date on local files (OK - thats the one we added first in 2015 R2).

In order to provide a complete homepage experience for Inventor users working in Vault, when you have a Vault project selected the Inventor home page shows recently opened Vaulted files along with the local files Vault status.  Users can even filter on state.

In addition to third party reference support via AnyCAD (covered last week) Inventor 2016 also introduces support for AutoCAD underlays in the Inventor environment.  Vault 2016 provides underlay reference support allowing users to add, check in and check out drawing files used in Inventor models.

And last but by no means least, as part of ongoing efforts to streamline communication between Vault and Inventor, the 2016 release has implemented a new method for calculating modified date, to align with user intent on file open. 

The improvement means Inventor users will no longer see instances where 3rd party linked files are marked as “modified” by the operating system, simply because they were downloaded to disk. A small but highly impactful change to the integration mechanics.

- Allan

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

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

Revit Integration - Managing Models

Continuing with the Autodesk Vault integration for Revit enhancements its time to take a look at the new capability for capturing and managing the Revit model project properties, where users have the ability to import and map these to Vault user defined properties.

A new Mapping User Interface on the Vault Options dialog has been added to streamline connecting Vault with Revit Projects where work sharing is enabled.

In the same vein, shared Parameters support allows users to point to a shared parameters file stored in the Vault for consistency and parameter reuse across projects, reducing effort and error.

We have also updated the In CAD capabilities, where users can manage category, state and revision of the Revit model with Autodesk Vault Professional document management tools and the Revit ribbon strip has been updated simplifying the Login In and Connection Status commands.

So that's about it - it's been a journey!  With so many small powerful user enhancements this year, Revit users will hopefully be delighted and more productive than ever.

- Allan

Revit Integration - Imports and Links and Stuff Like That

Continuing with the Autodesk Vault 2015 Revit integration theme this week we'll take a look at some of the new linking and import capabilities. 

With this release users are are now able to directly access model related data stored within the Vault project location and import additional site detail or geometry including other CAD formats, DWG, DXF, DGN, SKP and SAT into the current Revit project. This reduces the steps required to import data, and unlike Link from Vault, when the project is saved back to Vault, only the project file is updated.

Speaking of linking, support for the link file command has been extended to include DGN, SAT and SKP files so more of the project related data can be referenced into the model.

The link to DWF or DWFx file is now also maintained meaning, when user checks out a file with a DWF link, the DWF file is automatically checked out as well. When the file is closed, the DWF link is automatically checked back into the vault - replacing a very manual process and making management a whole lot easier.

- Allan

Revit Integration - Loaded with Load Improvements

The Autodesk Vault Revit integration has had a number of important functional enhancements to enable broader adoption of Revit in the Vault environment and improve existing user productivity.

In the first of these new functionality reviews we will cover some of the new loading capabilities and begin with groups.

Vault 2015 users can now load model groups, detail groups and attached detail groups directly from Vault into the current project. This allows users choose whether they want to load all groups or just specific groups and incorporate only the groups that they need in a single simplified work-flow.

Along the same lines, in another productivity work-flow enhancement users can now load all of the family types in a selected family with one click, making it faster to retrieve all of the family types needed for a project. This command now also defaults to the last used folder making it easier to locate the family types you use most often, straight out of Vault.

 

Finally the “Load and Place” command has been added to the load family dialog and enabled when a single family is selected.  This again is another simple productivity change reducing user clicks and providing an intuitive work-flow.

- Allan

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

Autodesk Data Standard for Vault 2015

I have had a bunch of enquiries around access to Autodesk Vault Data Standard for 2015 for Workgroup and Professional, as well as a number of questions around whats new.

We'll get to the what's new component in the coming weeks (spoiler alert - some great enhancements to help you better manage routed systems content and frame generator), but for now you can download the 2015 tool from here and start to play with it yourself.

We also have an overview of Data Standard functionality available here if this is the first you are hearing of it!

-Allan