Is it possible find where .ipt's are used?

[dandiddlydandan]

Hi,

In an attempt to tidy up our extremely messy inventor folders I have notice several file that do not conform to our companies part number naming conventions. I'm not sure where these parts are used or even if they're used at all and would like to remove them.

Is there a way to trace an .ipt (using inventor or otherwise) to see if it's used in any assemblies?

Cheers

Danny

[harco]

Design assistant has where used search function.

Vault automatically knows where used for part and assys, and uses for assys

[CCarreiras]

Hi.

Use "design Assistant" in:

start -->autodesk-->inventorxxxx-->design assistant.

Cheers.

[markc-uk]

Better still, use Vault for your data mgt. It'll take care of your "extremely messy inventor folders ".

A painful process to implement but it will give you big gains in the long run.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure Vault will help you find where used on un-vaulted files, without doing a lot of other steps first to get the files into the vault.

Use Design Assistant as others have mentioned, but first create a new (temporary) project file that is above all of the suspect file locations, and add any other "stray" folder paths using the Workgroup Search Paths option. Doing this will allow DA to "see" all of the files.

Once this is all cleaned up, then Vault may help you keep this from happening again.

We don't use Vault here because of internal setups that extend beyond engineering, which make Vault a poor choice for us. So don't think you must use Vault. Do so if it makes sense for your company.

[dandiddlydandan · Accepted solution]

Like you, Bmiller, our drawings are accessed by other departments than engineering. We've talked about vault before and i think your right  that it wouldn't suit our setup. 

Have never used DA, (only realised we had it installed after searching to day!!) 

Need to spend some time to work out how it works, played a little today and it trying to find a part that i know is used in an assy but it didn't find it. No doubt its our setup which i havent sorted yet.

Looks like DA is the tool for us though Thanks very much everyone.

[Anonymous]

there is a help file for DA you might want to check out

on my system its at:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2010\Help\ADMassist_14_0.chm

change Inventor version and path as needed.

[msklein]

The major problem with using DA for this purpose is that if the assemblies are large DA takes forever to open. I'm a big believer that only Enginerring should have access to native files, all other departments get "PDF'S" only.

Have had files messed up by other departments that have been allowed access, at a couple of companies. If departments other than Enginerring has access to native files how can Enginerring be held responsible for the accuracy of files, since there is no traceability of who has changed files. This puts Enginerring in a bad no win situation.

JMHO

MSK

[Anonymous]

I agree with DA being too slooooooooooow.

Our issue with vault is not so much other departments needing access to engineering data, but the fact that our engineering data contains live linked files created by other non-autodesk software that the vault can't handle. This in addtion to some other setup that I mentioned before.

I really wish DA would get some development to make it:

a) more complete

b) perform better

for those of us that just can't use Vault.

[msklein]

Vault stores MS Office files, so what other kinds of files are you trying to store? I also don't think that AUTODESK is going to do anything more with DA as they are focusing on Vault and it's bigger brothers. And have hinted about doing away with DA.

MSK

[Anonymous]

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@msklein wrote:

 I also don't think that AUTODESK is going to do anything more with DA as they are focusing on Vault and it's bigger brothers. And have hinted about doing away with DA.

MSK

---

That's my fear. They keep pushing Vault even though it's not a good fit for many, and in doing so they're neglecting to offer an alternative for the types of tools that DA provides.

As far as what kind of files:

• we use a PCB design program called Altium Designer, and it has some live linked files that the Vault scrambles and can't maintain.
• we also create a lot of engineering data in the form of firmware, that relies on internal links as well, again Vault can't maintain these file.

we can not have some of our engineering files in the Vault and some out of it, so we use an internally developed system, that works really well, and me muddle through with DA.

Can Vault maintain links internal to MS Office file? For instance if I have a word doc that reads data in from an XLS file?

[Anonymous]

You can always look into systems like SmarTeam.  We put all kinds of items in there.  A wide variety of documents that you can umbrella under projects (folders) that can keep everything linked together.  So if you have, let's say job 12345, you can pretty much place any files or media related to that job into SmarTeam: inventor files, step files, pdfs, offiice docs, engineering docs, etc., you name it.  Then, anyone in the copany with access to this program can just search "job 12345", and find all the related files and what not pertaining to the job.  There are a few "vaulting" applications out there that go far beyond what Inventor vault offers.

Just my thoughts.

JLackey

[Anonymous]

Thanks, but we're not really looking for another data managment solution, we have one custom built for our needs, it works great. What we are looking for is an improvement in the tools that are currently in DA but are only being further improved in Vault.