Publish DWF to an external folder

[Anonymous]

Matt,

I have a situation where I need to Auto load into Vault pro several thousand AutoCAD dwg files.I can build the DWF visualization files during that import no problem. The issue I have is I cannot seem to get the DWF to publish to an outside of vault folder on a server so that they can be access by the manufacturing sites.

I've attempted a task scheduled job, and it will not run the DWF publish on AutoCAD dwg's for some reason, so I left with check out the ACAD dwg's and run a batch plot operation on over 150k of files one folder at a time.

Is there a way to use task scheduler to do this operations for us?

In General this is preventing a Vault installation at this site, and I'm looking for some solution or direction to a solution so we can move forward.

Thanks

Mike

EDIT: Title slightly changed for clarity -Matthew Reid

[reidmatthew]

@Anonymous Thanks for posting to the Vault Forum. I saw your questions posted to an earlier thread. I moved them to this new thread as the questions are sightly different. I want to make sure we keep things separated for clarity.

Are you getting errors in the user interface or Vault server logs when running the scheduled task? What kind of scheduled task are you running - is it a Windows Scheduled Task?

Have you looked in the Duplicate Vault Folder Structure for visualization files? This allows you to save your visualization files to a common folder, like on a network location, for example.  

Have you looked into the option of using the Vault feature to check in AutoCAD folders? That may help you break up the 150k files into batches. 

I may not be understanding your process and needs fully, but would the Vault Thin Client be an acceptable option to allow users to see the visualization files? 

Let me know what questions you have.

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the relocation of this note.

As to your questions, I'm running the Task Scheduler (From Autodesk install) not Window Task Scheduler. We are using Autoloader to load the sample AutoCAD dwg files into the Vault. We can select the publish Visualization during the Autoload process, but it will not Duplicate to the selected folder location. I'm not sure why that fails, I must be looking in the wrong place for the log file.

So to resolve the missing DWF files we elected to use "Task Scheduler" to generate the DWF files from vault, that log file in the created task reports "No files processed". Step 2, use task scheduler to check out then, check back in and create DWF files inbound to Vault, in this case no option to create a Visualization file. Step 3 manually update the Visualization file with-in Vault that appears to work, but that would take the user several months.

The site uses the DWF to batch plot to PDF for manufacturing process workflow sheets, this additional application creates the shop machine and tool setup for each part. This completes shop processing tool/machine/utilization is critical to the operations. At vault switch all DWF files must be created so that the shop has no stoppage in machining operations.

Summary

1. Autoloader will not create visualization during load operation

2. Task Scheduler will not create either

3. Check out folder with Task Scheduler works

4. Check in with Task Scheduler has will no allow DWF creation

Does this make since?

I'll be doing some testing later and will update this post with findings....

Thanks

Mike B

[reidmatthew]

@Anonymous Thanks for the updates.

I haven't been able to get DWF files published to the shared Duplicate Vault Folder Structure location using Autoloader either. And it sounds like Inventor Task Scheduler isn't creating the DWF files either. This appears to be a limitation to Autoloader and Task Scheduler I will have to look into this with the Product Team on our end.

In the mean time, have you considered an advanced search in Vault? You could find all AutoCAD DWGs created on a certain date or something similar, for example. Then you could highlight the search results, or a portion of them in your case as there are so many, select Actions > Update View > Queue Update to send the files to the job processor for DWF creation. You would want to try this with a few files first to make sure the DWFs are being created correctly. And I know this process would still take some time and be labor intensive but it may be doable in batches.

Another idea is to not set up the Duplicate Vault Folder Structure initially and just let Autoloader make the DWFs inside Vault as usual. Then you could set up the Duplicate Vault Folder Structure options. Then do an advanced search to find all the DWFs in Vault. Do a Get of those DWFs from the search results and place them in the shared folder. That way you have all the DWFs in the shared folder originally. Going forward, the DWFs can be updated using the normal check in process, for example. That idea may work for you also.

Let me know what you think.

[reidmatthew]

@Anonymous Have you made progress on getting DWF files created in the shared location? Do you have further questions or ways I can help you out?