topic Auto check-in timer? in Vault Forum

Auto check-in timer?

mike_wheeler12 — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 12:56:49 GMT

Good morning,

I have a quick question. Is there a auto check-in feature within Vault that can be setup to force check-in previously checked-out files to be checked back in to Vault with out the person who checked out the files?

Reason for my question is we have several draftsman, engineers that would need to also utilize these drawings as well and if some has checked-out this file for a long period of time then no one else would be able to make changes except for the individual who already has it checked out.

Thank you

Re: Auto check-in timer?

jorgen.bjornes — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 13:21:57 GMT

No such thing exists out of the box. In my opinion it would have been highly annoying and dangerous (if a model has errors and is not ready to be shared to the team yet).

Re: Auto check-in timer?

jorgen.bjornes — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 13:23:33 GMT

You should probablyy educate your users. And you can make yourself a saved search that lists any file checked out since before a date. And use that in the education process.

Re: Auto check-in timer?

Gabriel_Watson — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:01:00 GMT

Jorgen is correct.

In a larger or more established company, you can find out the standard process for the maximum number of days a design file or drawing can stay in revision, and use that number in a Vault search. Use two criteria, one for Checked Out "on or after" a certain date (as far back as possible), and another for Checked Out "on or before" a certain fixed running date (30 days ago, for example, and you will need to manually keep updating this date as time goes by, sadly).

From my experience, you will not get regular end-users to comply with this, so you should always start with management. Send reports on a monthly or bi-weekly basis to the design or engineering manager, and if that person is not following or caring much about it, then talk to the design or project leaders to keep them updated with those numbers. If someone goes out on vacation for over 5 days, make it a policy that none of their files should be checked out. At the end of the day, you should avoid getting in conflict with the "offenders" and instead leverage the team's hierarchy of command to enforce these rules.

Re: Auto check-in timer?

jose_oltra — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:14:15 GMT

If you don't mind about the user changes you (as an admin) can remove file reservation (like an "undo check out")

Menu File > File control > Remove reservation

Re: Auto check-in timer?

Frederick_Law — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:39:33 GMT

All files should be checked in on end of week.

If not daily.

I don't see problem checking in files that are not finished.

As long as they're not "Released".

Make it a policy that admin will "Undo Check Out" if other need the file.

Re: Auto check-in timer?

pdschell2 — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 16:43:42 GMT

@mike_wheeler12
I agree with wanting this feature and would like it to be a (server side) scheduled task once a week. we have a couple of individuals in our department that never check stuff in and then we cant get in touch with them to share the updated drawings. 'undo checkout' wont work because we would loose so much information.

Re: Auto check-in timer?

BDCollett — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:02:26 GMT

As others have said, this is a training and management problem. Educate the users. Auto Check-In would cause more problems than it would solve in most cases.

Re: Auto check-in timer?

pdschell2 — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 01:06:38 GMT

@BDCollett the users have had 7 months to learn, they refuse to and management isnt firing them. auto check in on only the individuals computers wouldn't be any worse than what is happening right now

Re: Auto check-in timer?

jorgen.bjornes — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:31:04 GMT

I had a client who enforced an interesting strategy to deal with this. We placed a script in PC startup folder that deleted everything in local PC "C:\_Workspace\Designs\" folder. Not sure if I would generally recommend this variant, but after the initial shouting, the users got real good at checking in everything by the end of every day.