Cracking the Vault

Autodesk Vault 2013 Integration for MicroStation

After spending some time on the Autodesk Labs, the Autodesk Vault 2013 Integration for MicroStation is now available for download from the Autodesk Subscription Center under Downloads>Product Enhancements.

The MicroStation integration for Vault enables MicroStation V8i users to connect to Autodesk® Vault Collaboration AEC 2013 from within MicroStation, permitting MicroStation users the ability to manage their design data from within their design tool. Specifically, the integration provides users the ability to manage file versions via check in and check out, manage file references, manage title block attributes, batch plot, get Vault status, and dynamically create visualization files for sharing data with downstream non-CAD users. This integration also works with Vault Workgroup, Vault Collaboration, and Vault Professional.

There are components of this integration that reside on both the client and server machines, as well as the DWF publisher which resides on the Job Processing machine. Please refer to the administrative guide for more details on installation and use.

Vault Build Numbers

In the Help>About and Server logs is reported the build number of the version of Vault Server used.

This can help sometimes for you to confirm what version of the software is actually being used if there is some misunderstanding or miscommunication with the servers Administrator.

For example if they are trying to log in Vault 2009 from a Vault 2010 client. Looking at the log files on the server can tell you what version they are actually using.

Vault 2013 (RTM)	17.0.62.x
Vault 2012 (Update 1)	16.1.58
Vault 2012 (RTM)	16.0.56.X
Vault 2011 (Update 2)	15.2.66.X
Vault 2011 (Update 1)	15.1.58.X
Vault 2011 (RTM)	15.0.58.X
Vault 2010 (Update 2)	14.2.x.x
Vault 2010 (Update 1)	14.1.x.x
Vault 2010 (RTM)	14.0.63.x
Vault 2009 (RTM)	13.0.47.x
Vault 2008 (SP1)	12.1.145.x
Vault 2008 (RTM)	12.0.123.x

 

RTM = Release to Manufacturing, ie, no patches applied

In Which Applications Can I Find the Autodesk Vault Add-in?

Here is a list of applications that have Vault 2013 Integrations.

Application   Vault Basic 2013 Vault Workgroup 2013 Vault Collaboration 2013 Vault Professional 2013 Vault Office 2013 Alias 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Alias Automative 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Alias Design  2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Alias Surface 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD 3DS Max 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD 3DS Max Design 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Architecture 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Architecture 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Architecture 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD ECSCAD 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Electrical 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Electrical 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Electrical 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD LT 2013 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Map 3D 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Map 3D 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Map 3D 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Mechanical 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Mechanical 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Mechanical 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD MEP 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD MEP 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD MEP 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD P&ID 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD P&ID 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD P&ID 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Plant 3D 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Plant 3D 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2013 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 Yes Yes Yes AutoCAD Utility Design 2013 Yes Yes Yes Bentley Microstation V8i Yes Yes Yes   Inventor 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Fusion 2013 Yes Yes Yes Inventor LT 2013 Yes Yes Yes Inventor Professional 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Professional 2012 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Professional 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Publisher 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Routed Systems 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Simulation 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventor Tooling 2011 Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Excel 2003 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Excel 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Excel 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Outlook 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Outlook 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Powerpoint 2003 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Powerpoint 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Powerpoint 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Word 2003 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Word 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Microsoft Word 2010 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Moldflow Adviser 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Moldflow Synergy 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Navisworks Manage 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Navisworks Simulate 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Revit Architecture 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Revit MEP 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Revit Structure 2013 Yes Yes Yes Simulation Mechanical 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Simulation Mechanical WS 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes Simulation Multiphysics 2013 Yes Yes Yes Yes

For more information on other applications that can connect to Vault Server 2013, see this Forward Compatibility posting.

Vault Licence Release Behaviour

I wanted to post this information because Autodesk Support are frequently asked to investigate why licences are not being released automatically following a period of client inactivity. So I wanted to share my observations in the hope that you may find it useful.

(Click the image below to enlarge)

A background process will run two jobs on the Vault Server. (appears in the ADMS Console, Server Tasks as "Session Monitor").

• SessionInactiveTimeoutInterval (default = runs every 30 minutes)
• SessionInactivityCheckInterval (default = runs every 5 minutes)

There are three states that the licence can be in.

• Active (Consumed by a client)
• Inactive (Consumed by a client and can be reconsumed by that same client but not yet in the pool of "available" licences)
• Available\Released (The licence is available to any client)

The licence will not become Available\Released, until the SessionInactivityCheckInterval process runs and detects that a licence is Inactive.

If the user logs out of the Vault Server or closes the client application, the licence is immediately Available\Released.

So using the above image as an example, a user logs in to a Vault Workgroup "Thick" client at 12:01 but then leaves the session inactive. At 12:31 their licence will become "Inactive", then running at 5 minute intervals at 12:35, the Vault Server checks what licences are Inactive and Releases them to be available to any other user. Between 12:31 and 12:36, the user can reclaim their licence. After 12:36 they cannot be guaranteed that they will get their licence back, requests for a licence will be subject to number of licences available. If the frequency of licence refusal is increasing, you should ask other users to log out, or if they are actually using the licences, purchase additional licences.

The same process also applies to the thick Vault Professional (VP) client. However, it will poll the VP server every 5 minutes for any ECO Notification (Hard-coded). This polling will ensure that so long as a user is logged into the VP Server from a thick VP client, the licence will never be released. The Vault Addin for AutoCAD will perform a similar poll in VW\VC\VP as it checks for updates to any XREFS.

Ordinarily, when a user logs into a licenced Vault Server from either a Vault Workgroup (VW) or Vault Collaboration (VC) "Thick " client or licenced CAD Addin, after 30 minutes of inactivity, the licence will become "Inactive". (As soon as the user makes any request to the Vault Server the "SessionInactiveTimeoutInterval" countdown is reset). 

Autodesk Vault 2013 Revit Integration Enhancement is now live.

This subscription extension provides enhancement to the Revit Integration for Vault Workgroup, Vault Collaboration, Vault Collaboration AEC and Vault Professional. These enhancements include functionality for better adding and managing Revit families, smarter "check-in" and "check-out" of Revit files using new Save to Vault and Open from Vault features, establishing linked files to Revit files within Vault, and downloading missing children. Additionally, the user experience is streamlined for working in a single file or worksharing environment.

You can download the "Autodesk Vault 2013 Revit Integration Enhancement" by logging into Subscription Center and clicking the Product Enhancements link.

Vault 2013 Forward Compatibility

One significant new feature in Vault 2013 is the Forward Compatibility. In its simplest form, this allows any client, that can connect to Vault Server 2012, to connect to Vault Server 2013. (For more information see the Vault 2013 readme. Under “2013 Readmes”>Autodesk Vault <edition> 2013 Readme>Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS)>Support for Prior Vault Clients and Add-Ins.

This greatly simplifies the task of upgrading to the next release of Vault. In the past if a new version of a CAD application was released and you were using Vault, before you could upgrade to the new CAD App release, you had to upgrade your Vault Server and all Clients simultaneously. If you didn’t, the clients would not be able to use Vault.

Now its possible to upgrade to the new release of Vault Server 2013 and upgrade the clients later as needed. Provided that the clients could connect to Vault Server 2012, they will be able to connect to Vault Server 2013 without needing to install anything new on them!

Here are two examples of how this might work.

First for CAD Addins.

At the top there is a client with

• Inventor 2010 SP4
• Vault Professional 2012 (Client) Update 1
• Inventor 2010 SP4 Client Update Patch for Vault Server 2012 Update 1

Because this client could connect to Vault Professional Server 2012, when the server is upgraded to Vault Server 2013, unless the CAD Administrator tells the user that the server has been upgraded, they should see no difference.

At the bottom is a client with

• Inventor 2010 SP4
• Vault Professional 2013

Although the Vault Professional 2013 client will install and will be able to connect to Vault 2013, the CAD ADDIN will not install for Inventor 2010 SP4.

Secondly for the Vault Clients

It is possible to install different releases of the Vault Professional Client on one computer.

The Vault Professional 2011 client will not connect to the Vault Professional 2013 Server.

The Vault Professional 2012 and the 2013 clients will be able to connect to the Vault Professional 2013 Server.

 

There are some caveats.

• New functionality available in Vault 2013 will not be available in older Vault clients and Add-Ins.
• Some functionality in a Vault 2013 client may not work when only an older version of the CAD application is installed or if an older version of the CAD application was last run. Running Inventor View 2013 or the 2013 version of the CAD application and then retrying the operation may resolve the issue.
• The edition of the client must match the edition of the server.

Vault Upgrade Documentation is Now Available

Autodesk has recently released detailed documentation on how to Upgrade Autodesk Vault on the Vault Wiki.

There is also a downloadable version posted at the bottom of the above mentioned page.

Components Installed By a Vault 2013 Client

A new Technical Solution has been posted listing the components installed by a Vault 2013 Client in TS18562694

Components Installed by Vault Server 2013

A new Technical Solution has been published listing the components used by Vault Server 2013 in TS18562673

Cannot Delete Users From Vault - Rename and Disable Instead

A common request is the ability to delete users from the Vault once they have left the company. Vault, won't allow users to be deleted to retain historical information. Once a user has left the company the user can be disabled from within the User Management control within the Vault client itself or the ADMS Console. This prevents the user from accessing any Vault database.

A concern in larger implementations is that the User Management grid will become long and unmanageable.

One suggestion would be to

1. Untick the "Enable user"
2. Edit the User Name to be preceded by "zzz_"
3. Click OK
4. Click the User Name column header to sort Ascending Alphabetically.