Autodesk Vault

[#1]

I was very excited to see this feature (as I'm sure others were as well), but only to be let down by it's functionality.

After doing some testing, it seems that the Revision Table on the drawing only gets populated once the drawing goes into a 'Released' state and then use the 'Populate Date from Vault' with a right-click on the Revision Table.  This causes an issue, because the DWF of that drawing will show out of date information thus causing an issue for the Web Client users relying on that up-to-date information by the DWF.

Here are my steps as followed (assuming you did the configuration of the Vault Revision Table prior using the guidelines here - http://underthehood-autodesk.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/vault-2012-revision-block-integration.html)

1. Assign your drawing to a category so it's assigned a Lifecycle and Revision Scheme.
2. Your drawing should be at WIP and your initial Revision 'REL' (I'm using 'REL' for my example).
3. Release your drawing.
4. Take it back to WIP, which should trigger a Rev level change, your drawing should now be at Rev A.
5.  Check out your drawing from Vault, open inside Inventor and place in your Revision Table using Vault Revision.  Your table should show a Rev level of 'A' with none of the other properties being filled out.
6. You can fill out some of these properties (i.e. Description) and you would think it would populate the Revision Table if you right-click the Revision Table and click "Populate with Vault Data".  Nothing gets populated. It explains the Revision table is already up-to-date.
7. Now, save and Check In your drawing. (Leave the drawing open in Inventor - this is key to seeing the issue)
8. Within Vault, take your drawing and put it into a Released state.
9. Go back to Inventor (DO NOT REFRESH THE BROWSER) and right-click the Revision Table and choose the "Populate with Vault data" option.  It will tell you the file is locked, but you can continue to edit anyways.
10. Your table will now update the the property information into the Revision Table that it should have prior to Releasing the drawing.

The problem is that if you check the DWF inside Vault, it will display the Rev A row, but no property information.  There is no way to update the DWF with the way the drawing currently looks, because it's in a Released state and you cannot get this back into the Vault.

A workaround would be to take this to a Quick-Change state, check out and open the drawing, update the Revision Table, save, check it back in and then take it back to Released.  This will update the Revision Table without bumping the Rev level from taking it out of a Released state. (Not the intended workflow I'm sure)

Another thing I tried was to make sure the transition from WIP to RELEASED updated properties and view using the Job Server, but this is more than just a property update that needs to happen.  There is an extra command that needs to be ran to update the Revision Table on the drawing as well which never gets done.

Has anyone else experimented with this new feature and found the same thing I have or found a solution around this?

[#2]

Finally, someone else ran into this.  I've been trying to figure out if we were doing something wrong.  Why wouldn't there be an out-of-the-box Job Processor routine that handles the updating of Rev Tables like there is for property synchronization?  As of now, it’s an inefficient process to have to release the file, cycle it to quick change state, update the table, and then re-release it.  Like the previous poster, I hope we missed something and this isn't the actual "as intended" workflow.

[#3]

Hi mdurst,

I assume you do not have the Job Processor services enabled?

The Vault Revision Table works best with the Job Server whereby the data in the Vault Revision Table can be updated upon release via a transition state (sync properties) action.

If the above is turned ON, then there will be no requirement for you to re-release your drawing again.

Let me know if this works for you.

[#4]

Hi CodeMonkey831,

Essentially, if you have both the Vault Revision Table and JobServer feature turned ON (and your transition actions set for property synchronization), then your revision table will be updated by the Job Processor every time a property sync takes place.

However do note that the Job Processor will not update Vault Revision Table for legacy Inventor drawings by default. To work around this, please visit the following URL for the required setup:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/2012/Help/02._Working_with_Vault/01._Vault_Client/1296AboutRe...

[#5]

Alan,

Thank you for the reply.  I do have the Job Server enabled and I am logged into the Job Processor.  I set the transition state Work In Progress --> Release to "Synchronize properties and update view using Job Server".  This seems like it would work, HOWEVER the sync properties command fails in the Job Server Queue with an error resulting in the file being locked.

You can't sync properties on a file that is in a released state, so how is this supposed to work?

[#6 · Accepted solution]

You can create a job processor user (with a strict password) and add them to the released lifecycle state to grant them access.  This will also allow you create a DWF file for a released file

Reference - http://crackingthevault.typepad.com/crackingthevault/2011/05/file-locked-when-releasing-a-file.html

[#7]

Andy,

    Thank you for the reply.  I created another user called "Job Processor" and added this user to have Read, Modify and Delete access on the "Released" state within the Lifecycle Definition.  After doing so, the Job Processor was able to do 3 tasks: Sync Properties, Update the Revision Block and then Update the View (In that order).

The DWF is now showing updated information that wasn't being shown at the time the file was released.  Here is the screenshot showing how the date was added to the Revison Table only on the DWF inside the Vault and not inside Inventor at the time it was released.

This seems to resolve the issue I was having.  Thank you.  There is a lot riding on the Job Processor at this point, so one would hope that it never fails for these 3 tasks.

[#8]

Such an inuitive and user-friendly workflow to get it working!

[#9]

Andy,

The Job Processor method is working great as far as updating the Revision Table upon releasing the file.  One question I have is "Why can't Vault update the Revision Table inside Inventor prior to releasing?"  You can see all the properties are up to date inside the Vault and current yet the table is not updated inside Inventor.  There is even a command to "Populate with Vault Data".  It seems that command inside Inventor needs to be reprogrammed to do the same thing as the Job Processor job "autodesk.vault.updaterevisionblock.idw".  

Can you answer this for me please or recognize that this is an issue that somebody is looking into?

[#10]

Andy,

         Another thing I want to note is how the "Revise" command works inside Inventor.

In this example:

1. Revision "C" was created by rolling the file through a lifecycle (Released ---> WIP).  

2. The file was then never re-released so the table was never updated because it never got sent to the Job Processor (referring the my post right above this one).  

3. I then used the "Revise" command and it created a Revision "D" and overwrote Revision "C" in the table (as you can see).  

4. I then released the file and Revision "D" updates with properties as expected, but Revision "C" in the table is nowhere to be found.

Is there a way to update the table without "Releasing" the file every single time to force it to the Job Processor?  

Is there a manual command I can run inside Vault? - View Update (Queue Update) only updates the DWF, no Property Sync or RevBlock Update.

I'm really struggling with this.  Revison Tables have ALWAYS been the biggest challenge with Vault.  The changes made in 2012 are definitely headed in the right direction.  I just wanted to give some honest feedback.  If I don't hear from you, then I'm going to take that as you agree and there isn't anything you can do about this now.

Thanks for your time Andy.

-Matt