Vault Control menus grayed out in Inventor

[Anonymous]

Somebody please refresh my old man's memory and explain to me why the Vault Control Menus are not activating in Inventor.

2017 for both, project file is active, logged into Vault thru Inventor, etc.

I'd like my users to have the ability to change Category and State from within the application as opposed to them having to keep the Vault Explorer window open all the time and flipping back and forth. I'm sure it's something simple I'm overlooking, thus the "old man's memory"....or is there something more sinister going on?

[Anonymous]

Well, I thought I found the fix for Win 7...

But as you can see the add-in is already checked.

More digging needed...

[-niels-]

Stupid question, but is the file you've got open already in vault or not?

Asking, because my "change state" and such buttons are also grayed out when the part is not in the vault yet...
And in your screenshot, the only option lit is "check in" which makes me think it's not in the vault...

[Anonymous]

Niels,

No stupid questions.

But yes, it's in vault and I've run it thru the entire lifecycle a few times.

I even started the part as a prototype part with its applicable category and lifecycle, then "promoted" it to a production part by changing its category and thus lifecycle along the way just as a lot of our part will follow.

So it's been thru all stages including Released and thus revision level has changed a few times as well.

No matter what though, I've had to open Vault Explorer and do all the changing of states and categories there instead of in Inventor like I've always done in the past.

This is also how I'm looking to train the users, but I can't do such if it doesn't work that way now.

So for me, this is big issue (or bug) number 2 on 2017 Vault. Here we see the Control menus don't work and my other issue is that when I do change a file from Prototype to Production, the file still retains its Prototype Revision scheme even though it is set to the Production scheme.

Seriously thinking of rolling back to 2016 instead.

[Anonymous]

Here's a screen grab of the parts in question:

[-niels-]

Your screenshots are really confusing me...
The highlighted part does not have the icon in front of it that indicates it has a local version, but your earlier screenshot from Inventor has the same name as an open file...

I can't say what's going on, but i can't reproduce it so it's pretty hard to make suggestions...

I know there was an update/hotfix for Vault recently, maybe that could help... or if you already applied it, maybe it broke it...

[swalton · Accepted solution]

I think you have your part checked out.  Try checking it in to Vault and see if the state change and revision buttons become active.

I'm still on Vault and Inventor 2014 and I can't change state or revise checked-out files from Inventor.  They have to be checked-in so Vault can make any required changes to the tip version.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for any confusion but if I'm understanding you correctly...

The screen shot of Inventor is when I have the file locally and checked out for edits.

The screen shot of Vault is when the part has been checked back in and the local copy has been removed from my HD.

Hope that helps.

Here's a screen shot of Vault Explorer while I have the file checked out:

[Anonymous]

If I check the file back in, I won't be able to do the control changes in Inventor even if the menu did work.

You have to be active in the part in Inventor for the menu commands to work on that file.

***UPDATE***

Sorry swalton, I see what you mean. You are correct, the file needs to be checked back into Vault but kept open in Inventor and the menus become active.

I'm sorry but that is simply *@^$ed up, here's why in my book: I drive the idea home that when a user is done with a file, they MUST remove the local copy at check in so as not to mistakenly open the file from their local....always a major issue that I've seen over the years, especially for new users to Vault, which my guys here are.

This workflow just screws the pooch on all that. This wasn't the case a few releases ago if I recall, or am I mistaken?

Ugh....I can see it now, numerous occasions where a user will open a file from their local and work on it out of sync from Vault and then attempt to check it in, they'll get the notification from Vault that the "local version is newer than the version in Vault, do you want to overwrite the local copy with the version in Vault?" and being click happy like most users are, they'll simply select "Yes" without reading the prompt and thus wipe out all the changes they've made. This has always been an issue and something else I always attempt to drive home to the users...to read the prompts! ugh.

Oh well, swalton, you get the kudos and the solution on this one, thanks.

[swalton]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

If I check the file back in, I won't be able to do the control changes in Inventor even if the menu did work.

You have to be active in the part in Inventor for the menu commands to work on that file.

---

That must be a change from 2014. 

File open in Inventor, but not checked-out, Category and revision buttons working.

File open in Inventor and checked-out. Category and revision buttons not working.

[-niels-]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Sorry swalton, I see what you mean. You are correct, the file needs to be checked back into Vault but kept open in Inventor and the menus become active

---

This is probably why i was confused by your screenshots.

---

@Anonymous wrote:

... here's why in my book: I drive the idea home that when a user is done with a file, they MUST remove the local copy at check in so as not to mistakenly open the file from their local....

This workflow just screws the pooch on all that. This wasn't the case a few releases ago if I recall, or am I mistaken?

---

If that is the workflow you choose to enforce, then also teach them to change states and such in the vault explorer.

I think it's logical that when Inventor doesn't have a file to work with, the vault addin can't send information over to the Vault...

You could also teach them to clear their local workspace at the end of the day...

I've only started with vault from 2016, so i don't know if the workflow was different before... but it only seems logical to me.

In any case, i'm glad the cause was found so you can now figure out a workaround.

[Anonymous]

---

-niels- wrote:

---

If that is the workflow you choose to enforce, then also teach them to change states and such in the vault explorer.

I think it's logical that when Inventor doesn't have a file to work with, the vault addin can't send information over to the Vault...

You could also teach them to clear their local workspace at the end of the day...

I've only started with vault from 2016, so i don't know if the workflow was different before... but it only seems logical to me.

In any case, i'm glad the cause was found so you can now figure out a workaround.

---

Niels,

Yeah, I will have to get them in the habit of doing these changes while in Vault Explorer. I'd rather they keep the "remove local copy at check-in" option active. I've seen waaaaay too many mistakes happen when that wasn't the case. I'm sure I'm mistaken now that I think of it but I could have sworn one was able to do such in Inventor with the file checked out back in the day.

I know a lot of my concerns of having the typical user work or do a lot of things in Vault Explorer comes from back in the day where if the users double clicked on the file to open like one would in MS explorer, it would open a new instance of Inventor, aka if you opened 10 files in that manner, you had 10 sessions of Inventor open, bringing your puter to its knees. That's not that case anymore, but old habits....

I just prefer my users to do 90 odd percent of their job from within the application and only open Vault Explorer for specific needs like Copy Design, renaming or moving a file in Vault. Guess I gotta change my old habits...;)

[Anonymous]

Just had a scary thought on this.

OK, let's just say you worked on a part file, you want to use this Control menu in Inventor to say, change the file's state.

You've had to check the file into Vault in order for these menus to work. Let's say, for whatever reason you get pulled off your task for a moment (that never happens in the real world now does it?). Let's say that while you're off doing something like a phone call, another user sees the file in Vault at it's WIP state, and they check the part out. You get off the call, I have to assume you are no longer able to make the changes? Do the menus go grey on your end? Let's say they don't, can you still change the state? I would think not since the part is now checked out to someone.

I gotta test this and see what happens....more to come.

[Anonymous]

OK, as I had hoped, the menus do not go grey on your end, but you at least get the error popup that tells you you can't modify the state due to it being checked out by another user.

Sorry, just thinking out loud I guess.