Best folder structure Professional 2014

[loesche1]

Hello Experts!

I wonder if anyone could give me a hint for the best practices folder structure within Vault. I found older messages dealing with this topic, but I guess that there where more experiences made through the years. Also the evolution of the Vault may let us think about new methods of using the structure and additional database-relations. I think of a one folder strategy with classifications on the documents, relations to projects and assigned items.

What are your pros and cons for complex folder structures within Vault?

Best regards,

Lars

[tmoney2007]

I prefer as flat as possible.  My issue with complex and deep folder structures is that it starts to matter more and more *where* a file is in the structure and less and less what metadata is stored about the file.  I makes it much easier for a file to be lost, and more difficult to find it.  Additionally, trying to manage a complex folder structure when there is no way to enforce it is a nightmare.  You can create a scheme that is perfect and efficient, but nothing stops any content creator from going lower until it is uselessly convoluted.

With a relatively flat folder structure and metadata, you get something that is very flexible.  Some other systems actually eschew a rigid folder structure and allow views to be created that use metadata to structure the files that can be tailored to a particular user or group.  This requires that you store enough information ABOUT the files to create any structure that you want but allows you to fully optimize the view for any task at hand.

The funny thing about it is that I'm pretty sure that the filestore in vault is obfuscated, that is, the files aren't stored in the structure that you see in Project Explorer.  They are stored in the most efficient way possible for performance, and the file structure you see in the vault is just an illusion.

The issue with trying to go super flat is that your users will need to enter more metadata to make sure that they can find their file.  We're going to be requiring a product line, and at least 2 segments of a 4 segment category system that is being provided to them.  The issue is that there aren't a whole bunch of tool provided by vault/inventor to aid in that level of data entry.

Cliffs notes: For the sake of flexibility, I would rather use as flat a structure as possible and then require metadata to be entered that would allow the user to easily search to find the files that they require.  For a rule of thumb, I don't think there is a good justification for a folder structure much deeper than say 5 levels (and our vault is going to have several hundred thousand files in it.)

[swalton]

We design and build limited production machines.  Each machine is almost a one-off with little component re-use between machine classes.  Typically each machine is built once and any additional machines are built with lessons-learned and design changes.

Our file system is tied to the part number/filename of each component that we use.  We enforce filename=part number and turn on unique filenames with Vault.  So far not too scary.  Our part numbers are "smart" in that the class of machine, the production sequence of that machine, and assembly, weldment, piece-part, or purchased component is all built into the part number. This gets us a folder structure that is about 3 levels deep for most things.  This seems to work well given our typical design part count.

We use a single project file that scopes the entire vault.  That way it is easy to re-use a component from one machine to another.  It doesn't happen often, but we do so when we can.

We have Vault Collaboration and use the auto part number tool to assign part numbers when files are first saved.  That way the users know the part number and file location the first time something is saved. 

We have maybe 100k unique part numbers so far with more added every day.

We don't use design accelerators or frame generator much.  We do use FEA, but do not store the results files in Vault. 

Not sure that this gives you much help, but it works for us.

[mbodnar]

Hi

Whatever you choose the folder structure to be, I would take into consideration the performance of Vault and Inventor when more than 1000 objects are stored into one single folder

There still seems to be an issue with this. Issue is more visible in Vault explorer when populating a folder with a few thousand files vs under 1000. Not sure about Inventor's performance or other issues related to this.

Max B

[loesche1]

Hello all!

Thank you so far for the helpfull impressions! I will also try to achive a flat structure combined with metadata. Let's see what happens when the users are trying to define their own structure... As far as I understood there is no possibility to restrict complex structures, right?

Some time before I was even wondering why the filestore of Vault differs from the Vault Client folder structure and why there has to be this structure I don't know from other PDM systems.

Two more questions: 1. Do you have experiences using project objects and project lifecycles in Vault? Are there known issues using project related data that is located in different folders? 2. I heard of issues using the class list of characteristics in Vault. Are you aware of any problems?

Thank you all!