Vault 2013 / Buzzsaw Project Sync

[Anonymous]

Trying to use a state change at the folder level to pass files back and forth between Vault and Buzzsaw.

Workflow:

Project manager prepares a folder called Work containing 5 dwg files, one JPG and one PDF file.

Folder is set to WIP and then changed to Released to Buzzsaw (state change) which activates the transition autodesk.vault.projectsync.share pushing the contents to Buzzsaw for access to outide consultants

Folder is downloaded from Buzzsaw by the consultant, edits are made to the working files and reuploaded to Buzzsaw.  During the edit phase, additional files are added to the folder as x-refs, etc. so that now there are 7 dwg files, 2 JPG files and 2 PDF files.

A notification email is sent to the Project Manager when the consultant has uploaded the new files to Buzzsaw prompting the PM to changes the state of the Work folder from Released to Buzzsaw back to WIP.  This state change invokes the autodesk.vault.projectsync.add transition ideally updating the changed files and adding the new files.

We have succeeded in applying state changes to individual files that invoke these projectsync commands but when we attempt to apply them at the folder level, we receive an Invalid Buzzsaw path error or Invalid File ID error.  We are oh so close to making the Vault->Buzzsaw interaction a solution to our dilemma of allowing pseudo outside for consultants to our Vault.  We need a solid way for "Folders" and their contents to pass back and forth knowing that the files may change names/ quanitities.

Any thoughts on this?  I suspect it is a simple setting that we are missing,

thanks,

Blake

[matt.smith]

The manual Project Sync jobs (share, update, add) all deal with files (not folders).  So, using the Lifecycle event editor approach is only going to work with files that are already on the Vault side.

The "add" job isn't set up to work with the Lifecycle Event Editor.  The Lifecycle Event Editor technique assumes the job accepts a FileId parameter (which the add job does not--it accepts 

The other approach you can use is use the "automatic" sync.  With this approach you map a folder on Vault to a folder on Buzzsaw and it keeps them in sync whenever a sync is executed (this would bring over new files on the Buzzsaw side).  You can set up this sync to take place when

• you press the Sync Now button (Manual)
• Once per day (Scheduled)
• Continually

I'm not sure whether or not the automatic sync will meet your needs or not.

One caution: when file references are added to a file on Buzzsaw, and brought over to vault via Project Sync, those new "Uses" relationship will note be represented in the Vault data, since the file wasn't added via the CAD application.

Hope that helps,

- Matt

[Anonymous]

Matt,

Thanks for your response, I think I discovered the limits 🙂

I'm just trying to think through a workable solution for what will entail maintaining multiple synced folders.

We have about 24-36 consultants at any one time working from an FTP site now, Buzzsaw is intended to replace
that as a transfer point between them and our onsite Vault.

The possibility of automating some of the file management via syncing looks doable "if" the files originating in Vault
and being passed to Buzzsaw remain constant in name and number. Unfortunately, xrefs are added to the DWGs, design document
iterations are added to the folders and a variety of supporting documents may come and go- so the ability to 'check-in' entire folders
is desirable. (It doesn't bother me as much that the Use relationships will not be tracked b/c the xrefs will always be in the same folder as the parent.)

Any thoughts on a better workflow? Am I correct in that there is no way to establish multiple folder syncs at the moment?

Thanks,


Blake

[matt.smith]

Yes, you are correct--currently Project Sync only supports one folder mapping (it is a known feature request to have multiple mappings).  You can move your folder mapping up to a higher level folder that includes all the folders you are interested in transferring--but that's not always possible (since it might start including files you don't want included)

I don't have any other "out of the box" workflow suggestions to give you.  You could, of course, write your own job handler that figures out what new files are on Buzzsaw and then does an "add" on those files, but thats a lot more work.

- Matt