Under the Hood

Thin Client - Just the Newest Bits

As reported here late last year - the Autodesk Vault Thin Client has had a complete overhaul, we added a whole new approach to accessing, browsing, searching and reviewing Vault files and Items.

Based on some of the great feedback we had from customers we have added a few more enhancements to the 2015 release, primarily around how we preview the file DWF's.

For the first time we now have full viewing support across all major browsers - Autodesk Design Review plug ins can now be installed allowing users to view DWF attachments directly in Chrome and Firefox as well as Internet Explorer.  Downloads of the plug ins are available here for you to start playing with here.

We have also changes the preview behaviors - the small DWF preview window is gone replaced by a large glorious screen smothering preview that will have you wondering where to look next.

Those of you a little more observant will notice that your "download" options have changed to "Download File" or "Download Visualization" - a small but important change to the download behavior stopping your read only users from getting there hands on the source file in the absence of a visualization, a setting controlled by the administrator.

Stay tuned for more as we continue to make Thin Client enhancements and look to improve company wide design data and process collaboration.

- Allan

Vault 2015 - It's Here and It Wants to Tell Everyone About Your BOM

Is it that time of year again already?

Vault 2015 has now well and truly hit the streets packed with a bunch of user requested enhancements making it quite a popular release and something we're really proud of.

2015 focuses largely on addressing downstream Vault processes and communication, changing the way users create, edit and use items in Vault and CAD, how we create and share engineering and manufacturing bill of materials, adding support for a host of user requested bill of material work-flows.

The idea of enhancing the downstream communication has also expanded to the web client where we have made some great enhancements based on user feedback of our subscription release client available since late last year.

Data Standard is on the way too with some new ways to enforce standards as well as some added flexibility based on user requirements and learning's from current integrations.  As always we have put together our best set of CAD integration's with better file change management and whole host of new Revit productivity and usability enhancements.

There is of course lots more to this and in the coming weeks I will be diving deeper into each of the areas of enhancement, but in the mean time there is an opportunity to see what others are saying about the new release here.

-Allan

 

Master of the Items!

So that's enough talk about the Project Explorer, lets take a look at the new Web Client Item Master.

The first thing regular users will notice is that we have done away with the default time bound item filters (Last 7 days, Last month etc).  The item master now presents all Item Master content which can be sorted as you please using the displayed columns or properties, similar to the Project Explorer.

Why the change?  This is due largely to the implementation of paging as part of the new web interface, enabling us to load a fixed number of results on the first page (100 by default) and then incrementing the next set of files or items as the user scrolls down the page until all records are visible.  This approach improves performance while removing the need to run a search or manually flick through multiple pages of Items.

The same type of control was implemented in Vault Explorer Item Master some time back, so this new approach aligns the two access points and the paging value for both can be set in the server admin options.

Once we browse to, search on or otherwise locate out item we can select to view the detail page - with the same exact look and feel of the file detail page, a one stop overview of the record including item details, BOM, where used, history and attachments.

 

The BOM tab gives us the same read only BOM views as the thick client.  A "multi-level" expandable tree view allowing a complete BOM view, "first-level" which shows only those directly referenced assemblies or parts and "parts only" which removes referenced assemblies all together.  First-level and parts only are again displayed as a plank view and users can traverse the BOM relationships by clicking on the item or view item preview from its moustache

Where used and history tabs behave as they do in the Project Explorer presenting the item equivalents, and the Attachments tab for items displays all files associated with the item permitting users to carry out all the available file commands directly from the attachments tab or shortcut back to the file in the Project Explorer.

As you see the new Item Master is a much cleaner more consistent user experience mirroring both the latest thick client (Vault Explorer) and Project Explorer behaviors to make consuming Item data that much simpler!

- Allan

The new search begins.....

Although we have made it easier than ever to navigate the the web client and identify the files you need there is always going to be a need to search and this has always been of the most important features for downstream users.  So it makes sense that we would give this an upgrade too.

Changes to the new search include additional basic find settings, a much more user friendly advanced find interface and advanced find results interface making it easier to locate and interact with the documents of interest you.

Basic Find

Use basic search to quickly locate what you are looking for in the current context, with options to search sub folders in the project explorer and return all or latest only file versions.  Having access to the basic search settings is again a simple, useful addition to this new interface.

Advanced Find

Selecting advanced find brings up the new advanced find dialog, across the top of the dialog set your search location, be it the entire Vault, just the Project Explorer (files + folders) or only Item Master.  You can then enter one or more specific search criteria based on the available properties to fine tune your search and optimize the results (Green "+" to add criteria, red "x" to remove)

The results are then displayed in the Advanced Find Results grid and stay there until you perform another search.

This is an important addition to the new interface as users are able to complete an advanced find and return a set of results that remain available while users browse to the record and review details, view or download.

We can certainly carry out a number of actions on a file directly in the results pane, but if you are unsure of your selection or have a number of tasks to carry out on the search results its invaluable to be able to flick in and out of the results as you need to without re-running a search.

What about doing a search in a search though?  Well we have that too - if you find that your advanced find has returned to many results, we are able to run a basic search directly within the results page.  You must have found it by now yeah?

- Allan

Details, Details, Details....

So now we have given our new moustache the once over lets get back to the serious business of reviewing file details in the web client.

One of the great user experience improvements afforded by the new interface is the ability to select a document and easily present all the available system and user properties, much the same as we do in the thick client.  This makes it easier to understand why a document was returned in a search, who created and modified, categories, stock numbers, all the good stuff we thick client users otherwise take for granted.

Achieving this in the old web client was a little trickier as all but the basic properties had to be manually added, and this was presented on a cluttered details page, not really differentiating property types for the user.

While continuing to display the document detail pane we are also able to view the document history and relationships.  By default users will initially see the selected files history as revision or version (user setting available directly in the history pane), look at its uses (children) and where used (parent) detail.

Each of these tabs presents the data as planks with thumbnails and your configured properties. Clicking on the planks once again allows us to traverse sub assemblies and parents to find related docs.

We can even print from here with our great new printing controls - but more of that later, for now lets leave our web client users to catch up on their reading and absorb all this new detail!

- Allan

Hey - Check Out My Awesome Moustache

We touched on this in the last post and now its time to dive in to what I would describe as the most "Village People like" enhancement to the new web client - the "Moustache".

What is it exactly and does it make the web client creepy?  No, the moustache is the small band that appears along the bottom of the object preview image when you mouse over it, or the small icon set that appears in-line with a file, folder or item in the grid view.

What does it do?  It presents all the available actions for the selected object.  In the read only client this means you can preview the document, download the file or view the folder details.  If you are a Vault office user this extends to Check Out, Check In and Undo file actions.

And just like a 1970's disco, the moustache is everywhere, meaning you can immediately take action on a file in just about any context (where used, search results, attachments etc).

So unlike its real life counterpart the web client moustache is an elegant practical solution to an actual problem, not just a great looking lip ornament.

-Allan

The New Web Client - Its Kind of a Big Deal

As we mentioned a couple of posts back, the team is super excited about the new web client capabilities released with the Q3 Subscription Update.  Perhaps long overdue, the old web interface has been given a complete makeover, delivering a cleaner, easier to navigate interface with increased access to file and folder properties as well as simplified document preview, download and printing - all the basic stuff web client users need to do their thing.

We will spend some time diving into each of the different areas of the upgrade in subsequent posts, but this week I want to focus on the navigation experience.

The first thing most will notice after they move through the smart new log in screen and flip through the new "front and center" Web Client help section is the big clear navigation icons for Project Explorer, Item Master and Search Results (This section is empty until you search of course).  

Selecting the project explorer exposes all your files, and yes, your folders.  The new Web Client has done away with the file hyperlinks and limited tree navigation allowing users to traverse the folder structure by drilling down directly into the displayed folder or backtracking through the breadcrumb across the top.

These Vault folders, files or items can also now be displayed in a number of ways, as the traditional file grid (list view) for the reading types, for the more visual we can display tiles (thumbnail view) and for the conflicted we have the new plank mode allowing you to display the file thumbnail and the most important file or folder details.

Not happy with the detail shown?  Not a problem, with the new web client, keep an eye out for the little gear icon at the top of the window you are in (main view, file or item details etc) and you will get access to change your property settings - change the properties in the file grid, properties in the plank view or file detail header.  These settings are only for your own machine, so you do not need to be an admin to configure your interface and can now set up the web client experience per machine or have the administrator choose for you and lock the default property view down.

With your view configured, we can now sort the file list by column, or even organise the tiles and planks by any of the selected properties bringing this new configurable, data rich interface much more in line with the Vault Explorer client and making it far easier to browse content.

As you move around your new nicely set up interface you will no doubt be discovering the moustache - yeah that's right, we have moustaches now - but we will talk about that one next time.

-Allan 

 

Christmas comes early for the Vault faithful!

Haven't seen any of the DM team hanging in our regular haunts (Tupperware parties and civil war re-enactments) of late?  That's because we've all been locked away working feverishly on a number of really cool projects culminating in the release of the brand new and exciting "Autodesk Vault 2014 Subscription Release 1".

This update to Autodesk Vault subscription customers delivers some really nice changes to document status in the CAD add-ins, especially Inventor, making it easier to understand what the status of your local file is and far simpler to manage the "dirty file" scenarios that crop up during file edits. Coupled with this is a new improved vault browser filter addressing a number of user requests for better clarity in file status.

The biggest news with this release though is perhaps the new Web Client - a completely re-imagined interface making it simpler to browse, search and consume extended file and folder detail.  The new thin client is much closer to the Vault Explorer experience and the first release provides a great base for adding additional functionality moving forward.

Lastly but by no means least are the Revit integration enhancements, and there are a lot!  Import from Vault permits users to insert CAD files direct from Vault, Load Group, Improved load family, increased support for linked files, maintaining links to DWF, new log in and connection connection status, shared parameter support.........  

Well you get the idea, there's a lot!  So much in fact over the coming weeks we will go into more detail on all of these features, but you can of course download this release from the subscription center and see for yourself or read up on these changes in our new online help here.

Oh yeah, we have new help, we will have to discuss that too, stay tuned for more!

-Allan

Extended Communication with Autodesk Vault

The latest Vault Summer School video series posted to TheVaultKnowsAll is Module 5, Collaborate and Communicate with Autodesk Vault. This is a 10 part video module that covers extending valuable Vaulted information to other members in the design team. Topics include Microsoft Outlook integration, Project Dashboard in Vault,  Web Client, Change Orders, and Replication.

-Brian Schanen

Autodesk Vault Web Client video

The Autodesk Vault Web Client – available with Vault Collaboration and Professional -  is a search/view/print application ideal for users that need lightweight access to Vault. The following video takes you through a tour of the Vault Web Client.

 

-Brian Schanen