Vault Access Through Inventor

[dbrblg]

If I was to open an instance of Inventor, using vba (or any other language for that matter), is there a way to check in an opened document in to vault and either pick up on, or have defaults set for messages?

I am able to open an instance of Inventor and open a document but I am unable to find anything in the help files which indicates you can login to vault and check the file and its dependents in to the vault.

Has anyone done anything like this before?

Thanks

[wayne.brill · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The Vault API does not have any support for checking Inventor files into Vault. (You can use the Vault API in Inventor but it has this limitation)

Also the Vault API is inaccessible from out of process. (it is not a COM API). You could use the Inventor API to run Commands and there are Vault Add-In  commands you could run, but these require user interaction.  

Here is a more information about why the Vault API does not support checking in CAD files . (From a colleague in engineering).

>> >>

"We don’t recommend adding or checking in Inventor files through the API. There is a large amount of meta-data that goes along with a file upload (RefId, dependencies, BOM). So, we recommend letting the CAD plug-in do the upload of CAD data. It’s the same reason Vault Explorer doesn’t let you drag and drop CAD files into Vault.

Also

 
The RefId is not something you can set yourself.  The value requires function calls that are not part of the Inventor API.
There is no way to invoke the “fix references” command from the API.  I think Vault Explorer will block move and rename operations for files that have no RefId information.  If files get moved or renamed through the API, then the result is the same as moving/renaming files on disk.  Inventor may prompt the user to locate missing files.“

<< <<

There is a Change Request logged for enabling the Vault Add-In automation:

You could also request this ability on the Vault Idea Station.
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Vault-IdeaStation/idb-p/2

Thanks,

Wayne

[dbrblg]

Many thanks for finding out about this Wayne 

Your explanation explains quite a lot about what is happening in the back ground.