Vault revision table and Autocad

[Anonymous]

Have anyone had any luck with inserting the vault revision block in to a autocad dwg? I'm not able to. In Inventor everything works as expected. Have tried the command "vltrevblock" in autocad but is only getting a error message. It says "The active vault have not been configured with required integration settings. Please contact your administrator". Does anyone know what settings I should configure? And where I can find it? Vault revision table is enabled and working in Inventor. Is there something special I have to do in Autocad?

[alan_ho]

Hi Amasva,

Glad to know that your environment in Inventor is working well.

The AutoCAD add-in is using the same revision table settings as the Inventor add-in.

To access this settings, perform the following (illustrated in the image below):

1. Click on Vault Options within the 'Vault' Ribbon
2. From the options dialog, click 'Settings' in the Revision Table Integration groupbox
3. The Vault Revision Table Settings now appears

The trick to getting the Vault Revision Table to work lies in the cross mapping between the settings and the revision table template style (This is somewhat similiar to Inventor). This is illustrated in step 4 above whereby the column header in the settings is the same as what's being defined in the template. By default, the Revision mapping is termed 'REV' for the column headers. If you have the description of the column header already changed and setup for Inventor, you can do the following to have it working for AutoCAD:

• Create another mapping called REV and have it mapped to the 'Revision' property in the settings dialog. This will ensure that the REV column in AutoCAD will populate the correct revisions
• Or if you do not want 'REV' as the descriptor for Revisions in AutoCAD, you can change the template file so that the column header matches the descripor in your settings dialog. This can be done by following the "Editing the Vault Revision Table Template" help section here.

It is however important to note that there are two templates involved here, one for Metric and the other for English units. (Depending on setup for your drawing units, the corresponding template will get pulled in.) You should modify both templates if you are working on both type of units.

Let me know if this helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

is this valid for Acad Mechanical 2011 too?

I 've activated the revision table on Vault Workgroup 2012 settings but I'm unable to have the revision table in the Acad 2011.

Thanks

RR

[KooCheeKit]

Unfortunately, revision table requires Acad 2012 or Acad Mechanical 2012 for your case.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

No plans to have it on 2011 releases?

Regards.

RR

[Maxim-CADman77]

Lucky you are. After enabling "Reision block table" functionality in the vault we are getting error "The active vault have not been configured with required integration settings. Please contact your administrator" within Inventor.

Can you remember what else you've done to make it work in Inventor?

[alan_ho]

Hi uma,

I'm assuming that you have enabled the Vault Revision Table feature.

If this is already done. Please observe the (default) mappings in the Vault association groupbox.

The key mapping to the Revision property is mandatory. You should have one already defined.

Also take note the description of this mapping. In my case, it is called "REV" (from the default settings).

I believe your problem exists due to the key mapping is not appropriately set in your Inventor drawing styles.

You need to at least one of your Inventor's column header to reflect the same description as what is being described in the column header above.

To do this, access your Style and Standard Editor using the Styles Editor under the Manage tab.

In the Style and Standard Editor dialog box, look up your Revision Table Style(s) of use and make sure that there is a name by 'REV' under the column field.

You can name the 'Column' field or the 'Column Header' field to whatever you want, just make sure that the two string values match to be the same.

Once the above is done, you should be able to place a 'Vault Revision Table' without errors.

Let me know if this works for you.

Lastly, do not that Style and Standards are per drawing specific. To have your customed styles applied across all new instances of drawings, make your changes on the Inventor drawing templates instead.

[Maxim-CADman77]

Thanks for your reply. It was very helpful.

I can accept - everything you'he writen is 100% truth.

The root of my problem turned out to be localized Inventor (Russian) with default settings. Instead of "REV" default standard contains "Изм" in revision table heading. Just renaming heading for this column did the trick.

Now I have another challenge on the way of implementation Vault Revision table.

Could somebody tell me if Vault revision tables have any relation to the Item revisions or its only about file revisions?

[alan_ho]

Hi uma,

The Vault revision table has only direct relationship with the files revision at current release.

[cbenner]

Alan,

I got the table to work with Inventor the other day, and today I took on Autocad 2013.  I have the template set up the way I want, and it will bring the revision block onto the drawing with the correct properties, etc.  What I am runnig into is the problem another user was having the other day with Inventor:

I open the drawing from Vault, and update properties.   Since this drawing just went from Released to WIP in Vault, the rev table adds a new row, as expected.  The values are blank except for Rev... as expected.  I save the drawing and check it back into Vault.  Set the State back to Released, and watch as Job Processor (quickly) does it's thing to sync properties and update the image.... but the image still shows the new revision row with blank values.  SO.... I set the state to Quick Change, open the drawing again in AutoCad.... and the row populates with the rev properties.  Save, check in.... and now my image reflects the latest and I can set it back to Released.

I got this step to work in Inventor, but Acad seems to be balking me.  Any thoughts?

[alan_ho]

Hi Chris,

You mentioned...

"I save the drawing and check it back into Vault.  Set the State back to Released, and watch as Job Processor (quickly) does it's thing to sync properties and update the image.... but the image still shows the new revision row with blank values."

I assume the image you are referring to is the publishing of DWF (visualization)?

Are you using the same lifecycle definition for the ACAD files as the Inventor files?

My guess is that your Job Processor does not have permissions to update Released files, that is why the revision row was not able to be updated.

To allow Job Processor to update the drawing during the state transition, check the 'Job Processor user' to enable the ability to modify released files in the required Lifecycle Definition.

Also note that Everyone basically encompasses all users including the 'Job Processor user', therefore make sure that denial of modification of released files for Everyone should NOT be checked.

If your Vault Revision Table is updated by Job Processor, you should be able to see a comment "Revision table updated by Job Server." when you view all versions of the drawing. (In my illustration below, I have an Inventor file but it works in the same way for ACAD drawings as well).

Let me know if the above works for you.

[cbenner]

Yes, I am talking about the DWF visualization.  And I have done all of the things you mentioned.  In fact I did them all last week, in order to get this to work with Inventor.  But it still will not update the DWF for an AutoCad file using the same steps, same lifecycle definition.  The Job Queue log shows Error - the file is locked.

[alan_ho]

Hi Chris,

I believe you have security permission issues with those ACAD files.

If you like, we could take this issue off-thread.

Please send me an email at alan[dot]ho[at]autodesk[dot]com and we could schedule a meeting to discuss further.

[cbenner]

Alan,

I've beentearing my hair out trying to get to your link in this post on Editing the Vault Revision Table Template.... the link won't work.  I have ACAD 2013 and I need to know how to edit this template...  can you help?

[alan_ho]

Hi Chris,

With regards to editing the Vault Revision Block template for AutoCAD, please visit the following link:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/Help/Help/0001-Using_Va1/0024-Work_wit24/0026-Work_wit26

Hope this helps.

[cbenner]

Thanks Alan,

I got this to work Friday afternoon, and this was the first chance I had to get back on here.

It was, in my opinion, a pretty big vistory.  I can now say that Vault rev table is working in both AutoCad and IV.... however,.....

In order for the rev table's latest revisions to appear in Vault visualizations, I STILL have to set my status to Quick Change, reopen the drawings and update properties,... then check it back in and re-set to Released.

Either I'm missing a step, or this has some buggy behavior to it.  Knowing me it's the former.  Any thoughts?

My workflow so far has been:

From Vault I change the file from Released to WIP, which bumps the rev.  I edit properties and set my Revision info that needs to show up in the rev table (description, who approved etc.)

Open the files in IV or ACAD, make the changes and insert (or update properties) to get the Rev table.  Save, check in to Vault.

Return to Vault and set to Released and update the visualization.... the Rev table shows up empty.

[alan_ho]

Hi Chris,

The Vault Revision Table is designed to work with the Job Server/Processor.

Theoretically, once you have set the file to Released; the Job Processor can be configured to step in and update the drawing's rev table (thru synchronization of properties) and also updating of the visualization files.

This way, you don't have to manually (set the file to Quick Change and) open up every file upon Release to update it.

Alternatively, you could use the Vault client to update the Vault Revision Table without manually  opening it in Inventor. See the following Wikihelp link:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Vault/enu/Help/Help/0097-Administ97/0127-Client_A127/0147-Revision147/0...

(Do note that you'll need permissions to write to the Released drawings)

I followed your workflow, but I wasn't able to get the same result on your last step.

"Return to Vault and set to Released and update the visualization.... the Rev table shows up empty"

Perhaps this is something that you could reproduce in a video? That way, I can try duplicating the same conditions and revert thru a reply-video?

Also you might want to note that the Vault Revision Table always populates the mapped columns with released data

So if you have any values in those mapped columns, it'll be wiped off if that revision is yet to be released.

[cbenner]

Once again thank you Alan... going to have to look into doing it without the JP.  JP doesn't get the job done.... it clogs up and pegs out my processor and basically crashes and burns.  I have never been able to get it to work reliably.  it is actually quicker for me to do things the old fashioned way, than to rely on the JP.  If the JP could use multi-threading it would be a much nicer system... pretty sure I've wish listed that in the past.

But I will read the wiki link you posted and see what that can do for me.

Thanks heaps! 

[Maxim-CADman77]

Alan, most of your urls are dead now "You do not have permissions to view this page." (my gessing Autodesk has changed wiki-site structure).

Are there any chanсes to fix this?

[alan_ho]

Hi uma,

Try this link...

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/?adskContextId=ID_VAULT_REVISION_BLOCK&language=enu&product=Vault&relea...