Cracking the Vault

How To… Customize the Lifecycle Transition of a file

Have you ever wondered how you can customize a transition from the Lifecycle definition of a file using Vault Workgroups new Document Revisioning?

For example, you don’t want to transit from “WIP” to “Released” directly ....

....but you want to transit through “For Review” then to “Released”.

You can achieve this if you give the 'Everyone' group 'Deny' permission in the security definition of the transition.

 

Now the transition "WIP" to "Released" is not available anymore in your transitions list.

How To... Update DWF's Via the Vault Web Client

One new feature of Vault Collaboration and Vault Manufacturing is the ability to update a DWF if it is out of date via the web client.

If the DWF (Visualization file) is out of date you will see this message in Internet Explorer.

 

If you do not have the Job Server enabled you will need to have enabled it in the Collaboration or Manufacturing client application, before the update option is available in the web client. So to enable the Job Server you will need to log in to the application first.

Once you then log in to the Web Client again you should be able to click the "Update visualisation file" hyperlink on the General tab.

 

It should be pointed out that it would then require the necessary licences on the client machine wherever the job is sourced to.

Eternally Useful Vault Links

Worth bookmarking are the following links...

Autodesk Vault White Papers

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=9720013&linkID=9261340

Vault Updates & Service Packs

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9261341

Vault Knowledge Base

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/kb/autoindex?siteID=123112&id=2334144&linkID=9261340

Under the Hood

http://mfgcommunity.autodesk.com/blogs/blog/5/

This is Brian Schanens excellent Vault blog where he tackles common workfow issues head on.

Google

www.google.com

OK, the last one is slightly cheating, but Google is a great resource for finding almost anything on all the above mentioned sites inclding this blog :-)

How To...Copy The Text From An Error Dialogue Message (Use CTRL+D)

You may, from time to time, be the unhappy recipient of an error message from one of the Vault Applications. When you search Google you will need to manually type out the message to be a able to search for it. If you log a support case, we might ask for a screenshot (PrintScreen or ALT+PrintScreen) of the error message or the text.

As we all know getting it 100% accurate whilst you search, can affect your success or failure for finding a solution.

Screenshots can help us understand what you were doing at the time of the error, especially if you are communicating in a second language, but it can help to press CTRL+D. When you get an error message just type CTRL+D and this copies the text from the message to your clipboard so you can past it into your text editor.

I mentioned this in passing to a reseller today and he said this was a little nugget dropped into a conversation that was really useful, so I just wanted to share :-)

So to summarise:- CTRL+D copies the text to the clipboard

How To...Tell The Difference Between Vault Server's Indexing Commands

Occasionally we are asked what is the difference between all the different indexing options\commands in Vault Server.

From the pull down menus there are 4 options

General options applicable to all Vaults:-

• Tools>Index Block Attributes
• Tools>Rebuild Search Indexes

Available after selecting a specific Vault Database are:-

• Actions>Re-index Properties

• Actions>Content Indexing Service

Here are short descriptions of what each one does...

Vault Media Documentation

As always, whilst searching for something else, I came across, some useful Vault related documentation. There is a wealth of information before you install Vault Serv or Client to ensure you head off in the right direction in the <DVD>\en-US\SetupRes\Docs folder

On the Inventor & Vault 2010 DVD's are the following useful documents:-

• ADMS_Install_2010.chm

• AUTODESK_VAULT_2010_IMPLEMENTATION_GUIDE.PDF

• Autodesk_Vault_Icon_Status.pdf

• Autodesk_Vault_Icon_Status_Mfg.pdf

• Autodesk_Vault_Quick_Start.pdf

• Autodesk_Vault_Quick_Start_flex.pdf

• Autodesk_Vault_Revision_Managment.pdf

• CC_2010_Install_guide.pdf

• CC_for_Inventor_2010_side_by_side_install.pdf

• README_*.HTML

* Replace this with your version of Vault Server... Vault, Manufacturing, Workgroup, or Collaboration

How To... Get Outlook to Fetch Blog Updates Using RSS Feeds

Rather than having to come back time and again to this blog to check for the updates, you can have them delivered automatically to you via RSS feeds.You would need to configure your RSS Feed reader point to this particular site. A popular RSS Feed reader is Microsoft Outlook 2007. Here are the steps you can follow to get the updates pushed to Outlook every time you start it up.

In the top right hand corner is a "Subscribe" Icon.

If you click it, it takes you here.

How to Move the SQL Databases (and Filestore) From the Default Location

A question we get in support from time to time is how to move the SQL databases from the default installation location of C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data

Commonly the reason for the request is either limited space on the C:\ Drive or for an IT policy.

The only supported method for moving the database files is by doing a full ADMS Console Restore. Tools>Backup and Restore.

Select the Restore option and you will see an area where you can select the folder locations for both the Database and Filestore*.

 

*I should point out though that you can also move the filestore by right clicking the Vault database node in the ADMS Console and selecting "Move File Store"

How to...Troubleshoot Microsoft Installation Log Files

Most, if not all, commercially available Autodesk software uses Microsoft's own MSI (short for Microsoft Installer) as a standard installer technology. Among the many advantages of using this standard installer technology, it also offers verbose log files. In other words, if you encounter an installation error at the end of a long installation, it rolls back and then displays the location of of the setup log files. when you open the log file it can be somewhat daunting to know where to start to look for the cause of the installation failure.

Perhaps one useful skill for troubleshooting installation issues for Vault client and server software, (and indeed any installation issue using the MSI, Inventor, AutoCAD, etc) is the ability to get to the heart of the problem quickly.

Searching the MSI log file in Notepad for "return value 3" will take you to a point in the log file just after the first error. Normally one error causes other errors to follow, so looking at the first one is normally key to solving the problem.

In the following example we were unable to install SQL 2005 SP2 in a Vault 5 to Vault Manufacturing 2010 migration project (migrating via 2009 as migration directly from Vault 5 is not supported ). Searching for "return value 3" in the log file showed that the solution was written in plain English and after following the instructions we were able to install SQL 2005 SP2 and continue the migration project.

"Get Latest Item Properties" greyed out?

Despite knowing that your DWG file is controlled by Item Revisions in Productstream 2009 or Vault Manufacturing, and that the "Item to File" mapping is correctly configured to write back the properties to the correctly indexed Block Attribute in AutoCAD, when you try to "Get Latest Item Properties" it still remains greyed out ("grayed" for the US English search engines).