Vault Properties with AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit and Office Contents Introduction... 1 Project Number Example... 1 Editing the values... 2 Viewing the changes in Word... 4 Viewing the changes in Revit... 5 Viewing the changes in AutoCAD... 6 Viewing the changes in Inventor... 6 Property Configuration... 7 Summary... 8 Introduction Configuring the property mappings between your files and Vault is one of the major topics to investigate when configuring your Vault. If you use the default options, you will have only a small benefit over searching in Windows Explorer. The full benefits of Vault come with configuring properties detailing your custom parameters using your business terminology. Don t like Part Number, prefer Drawing Number? Prefer Drawn By to Author? Writing the same finish note, project or client name over and over on each drawing? Time to configure Vault to be your friend! Project Number Example Let s say your business refers to a Project Number. This number will be referenced across many document types. This should be configured within the Vault to map between as many document types as possible. It s highly likely you could be using AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, Word and pdf files: Page 1 of 8
In this example, I have created a PROJECT NUMBER property in the Vault and where possible mapped the value to the file. Currently, the values are all not set. When configured in this way, the Vault can display, filter, sort, search, report and edit these values. Editing the values Start by selecting a series of files in the Vault. (Control click, Shift click, CTRL A for multi selects) If you have Vault Workgroup or Professional, you can select the property in the properties grid and press Edit Selected Properties If you have Vault Basic, use the Edit menu and Edit Properties. You will have to press the Select Properties button to select the Project Number column. Whichever version of Vault you have, you can now click in a cell and edit the text: Page 2 of 8
After editing the text and pressing the Enter key, you will see a black dot in the corner of the cell. This can be used to drag the contents down the remaining calls. Press OK on the Property Edit dialogue to commit the changes. You will see the results dialogue confirming the old value and new values. Note the properties for each of the documents was updated in the Vault and then written to the property within the file except the pdf file. There are no such properties on the pdf file, so this value is stored in the Vault only. Page 3 of 8
Viewing the changes in Word Word document was: Is now: Word can be sticky to update properties, right click on the property and choose Update Field. Page 4 of 8
Viewing the changes in Revit Revit was: Is now: Page 5 of 8
Viewing the changes in AutoCAD AutoCAD was: Is now: Viewing the changes in Inventor Inventor was: Is now: Page 6 of 8
Property Configuration The Vault property definition is where all the mappings are defined. Each file type or Provider is defined by browsing to a file with the property already created. To use an AutoCAD block in this way in Vault, it must be listed in the Vault server under Tools / Index Block Attributes. Take care when entering block names, as these entries are case sensitive. Note the option at the bottom to Extract the attribute prompt which applied to each block name individually. Removing this tick will use the attribute Tag rather than the Prompt. Seems sensible to remove this tick. Page 7 of 8
Summary Properties should be added to your models or drawings as early as possible. For example, if you model a part that represents a purchased item, it should have properties to describe the make and model. Wherever this component is used, the information is known in the BoM, Parts list, drawing sheet, Vault search or report. Placing the information as text or prompted entry on a drawing should be avoided as it can only be seen when that drawing is open or printed which limits its use. The list of properties required is unique to each business. You should consider what s used by the Design Team, Sales, Purchasing and Manufacturing and setup the properties using the correct terminology, don t assume the other departments know Part Number and Drawing Number are the same. Set it up property and communicate more clearly. If you would like to discuss the use of your properties, please contact me at paul@vlt.systems. Page 8 of 8