iLogic LOD and the Vault .dwf visualisation

[JasonBurt]

Hello,

We use iLogic template assemblies to design our systems. These work by resizing and suppressing parts within them depending on the configuration required. The problem comes when the project mangers, who can only access the .dwf visualisation files in the Vault, try to check them.

As the vault saves the .dwf file from the 'Master' level of detail (LOD) which is incorrect, as opposed to the 'iLogic' LOD which is correct. The project managers cannot open the .iam files as they only have Vault Office and do not have Inventor on their machines.

Is there a way of changing the settings, within the vault/job processor, so that the 'iLogic' LOD is selected for creating .dwf visualisation files instead? or is it bad practice to use the 'iLogic' LOD to control the configuration?

I have tried creating a rule to change the LOD to 'iLogic' on opening and saving the document, but this has not worked. Please help! or my next job is creating a rule in each part to suppress all the features within when it is not required.

Thanks in advance.

Regards

Jason

[wayne.brill]

Hi Jason,

When I Check in a file and have the "Visualization Attachment Options" set to "Create during check-in" I am getting the preview in Vault Explorer to be what the active level of detail was in Inventor when I check in the assembly.

Are you using Job server to create the visualization file? I found this in a Product Support case:

>> >>

The Only known workflow to get your updated DWF is, to check in the dataset from Inventor with the LOD applied and generate a DWF.  If you need to update the DWF, the file will need to be checked out, a slight change to an unused property, then checked back in to create the new updated dwf.   

<< <<

You could request a change to this behavior on the Vault Idea station:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Vault-IdeaStation/idb-p/2

It maybe possible to create custom solution that would create the DWF from a certain LOD using the Inventor API. Then the Vault API could be used to add a visualization file. Here are a couple of posts that do not have a solution but have related information about the Vault API.

http://justonesandzeros.typepad.com/blog/2010/11/attachments-and-dependencies-faq.html

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2014/10/adddesignvisualizationattachmentbadattachmentord...

I also have seen one ticket logged with Vault Engineering for an issue related to using the vault API AddDesignVisualizationFileAttachment function. In some cases the name of the attachment added with custom code causes a problem where the link is not broken. (As configured in the visualization management settings). From that ticket: "break link will only break the link of a dwfx file that has the filename that we expect (i.e. the filename Vault uses when creating Dwfx)".

Thanks,
Wayne