Vault Integration with ERP

[No.Name]

Hi everybody,

we have got a ERP software which is being programmed for us specifically. Based on C#/,Net.

Now we are programing production functionalities.

We have been using Inventor for construction of parts for some time now. I have looked at the functions of Vault and would like to integrate this with our ERP software. Is there any standard interface? Or is there any information on how to combine Vault with ERP for the developers?

Functions which I would be interested in:

- connection between BOM in ERP and Vault

- When I order an article the drawings should be able to be sent together with order.

- In production process the needed drawings should be made available

Looking forward to some information.

[marco.mirandola]

Hi, Vault offers several ways for integrating with an ERP system.
- via the Vault Explorer you can export and import items via CSV file or similar
- via the Vault Explorer you can export/import items (and i think BOMs) via the MSMQ (Microsoft Messaging Queue)
- via the API you can create additional .Net functions that export/import items, BOMs, and whatever else either via a menu item or at lifecycle change
- via the JobProcessor API you can as above export/import almost everything at lifecycle change

In short, you can either use the out of the box functions, easy to use but limited in capabilities, or use the API, more expensive but 100% flexible.

we started early this year to introduce a "standard" way to integrate to ERP systems. It's called powerGate and uses the API approach, so it's 100% flexible. As the usual needs are around items and BOMs, we are providing a framework that works out of the box and can be customised to the given situation. powerGate uses the Vault API and Data Standard on the client side and REST API on the server side. So, while the client is more about user interaction, the server is the piece that "talks" to the ERP system. The powerGate server offers a .NET interface so that potentially any ERP system can be connected by keeping the Vault client side "almost the same".
We started with integrating with SAP, but we are expanding the reach to other ERP System.
Given that your ERP system is custom and .Net, it would be probably quite easy to connect to your ERP system as well and probably you have already the skills inside your company, or with the company that developed the ERP system. In case you like to know more, you can check our website (http://www.coolOrange.com) or just get in touch with me, also if you like to discuss in more depth the options mentioned above.

ciao
marco

[psaarloos]

Hi,

Can you tell something about the workflow you're trying to achieve? Do you have a workflow assigned to your Inventor documents and are you assigning/ updating and epxorting these items manually?

I work as a product manager for a reseller in the Netherlands with offices in the Benelux, USA and Australia. We've developed a Vault extension product that has a quite rich feature set, mainly focussed to optimize the business processes around PDM. You can find a trial of this product in the Autodesk Exchange Store. Click here to read more about it. The functionality that automates the item handling process is disabled in the trial, but I would be more than happy to show you the capabilities. We have a lot of knowlegde about integrating ERP with Autodesk Vault and the processes aroud it.

In your posting you mentioned you are interested in making the drawings available for the production process. Do you mean native drawings or renditions (exported) drawings like PDF?

Below I'll give you a brief overview of the solution you can achieve with Vault combined with our extension.

Features that are involved in the document and item handling process:

- Secondary Documents

- Document - Item Link

- Item Export

- Web Service

Secondary Documents

Automatically create design visualizations of Inventor and AutoCAD documents by the job processor upon state transition. As soon as an inspector or engineer releases Inventor documents, a job will be added to the job queue that is capable of creating a wide variety of export formats like PDF, DXF, AutoCAD DWG, STEP, IGES, DWF, DWFx, etc. The generated documents are added to Vault and are attached to the corresponding native Inventor document. So after releasing an Inventor document (or AutoCAD document) the documents you might wanna share with production are automatically generated and secured in your managed Vault environment.

Document - Item Link

Automate the release process of items by making the release process of documents leading. In a standard Vault the user needs to perform many actions to assign, update and release items. This feature dramatically simplifies this process. The job processor will keep the document and item states and revisions in sync.

Item Export

Automatically export an item and its bill of materials in xml or csv format when a document in Vault has been released. Combined with the Document – Item Link feature where the release process of documents is leading this feature automates the whole post process to feed your ERP system.

Web Services

The product also contains a server component that consists of a web application and a web service that can be called from your ERP system. The ERP developers won't need any Vault API knowlegde, since the web service manages the connection to Vault and all other logic behind it. Developers simply need to call a function like 'GetSecondaryDocumentsByItemNumber' to retrieve the latest released secondary documents from Vault.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any question.

Regards,

Pim Saarloos

psaarloos AT cadac DOT com