Vault Items for AutoCAD Files

[ThomasRambach]

I'm working on setting up mapping of Item numbers and other properties for AutoCAD files in Vault. By default, it's mapped to component numbers which is not the desired behavior we want. We simply want a drawing to create an item of with the matching drawing number. I'm able to achieve this by mapping the title block number to the Item number property, no problem.

The issue I see for this is for all the various title blocks we currently have in circulation, after I make the mapping change in Vault the Item will not promote correctly until I check out the DWG and check it back in. So my assumption is this Item data has to be read by Vault when the file is checked out and back in.

This seems different than Inventor files where changes to mappings instantly work for all files promoted after the change.

Thoughts?

[ihayesjr]

Hi Thomas,

If you are adding new title blocks to be indexed to get the mapping, that is why you have to check the drawing out and back in or perform a Property Re-Index. The information in the drawing is not stored inside of Vault until Vault knows what title blocks need to be indexed.

[ThomasRambach]

@ihayesjr So even if the properties are already being read into the files in Vault, it won't index into items until it's checked out and back in?

[ihayesjr]

@ThomasRambach while the data is inside of the file that is already in Vault, the data is not in "Vault". The data needs to be extracted from the file and because it is a title block, you need to tell Vault to extract the title block data by adding the title block to the list on the server. Once the title block is in the list, you can perform a Re-index Properties command and that will extract the data from the file as long as the property is on the file inside of Vault. Or you can check the file out and back in. As with all check-ins, all relevant properties are extracted during the check-in process.

[ThomasRambach]

I have a ticket open for this but it's just not working like I would expect.

• Title block is already added to list of blocks to extract from in ADMS
• DWG file properties "DWG_NO" are already being extracted on check-in to Vault.
• Make a change to where Item number is now mapped to DWG title block property DWG_NO.
• Reindex Vault properties for all DWG's
• Promote DWG to Item. DWG_NO is not being used for Item number. (Cancel)

• Check out DWG file and check back in.
• Promote DWG to item. DWG_NO is now being used for Item number.

Nothing works until that actual file check-in, check-out happens. 

With 100's of thousands of DWGS, these is going to be painful if that's the only option.

[ihayesjr · Accepted solution]

This sounds like the existing DWGs do not have the property on the file already. A Check-out then Check-in would add the property to the file. A re-index won't work if the property isn't already on the file. What I mean by this is that if you select a DWG and in the Property Grid the property from the Title-Block is not listed.