Rev Number and Revision columns in Vault Pro

[karthur1]

In my Inventor parts, I edit the Inventor iProperty on the Project tab named "Revision Number".  I would like this property to show on my Vault Pro (2016). In Vault Pro, I have edit the column headings to include both "Rev Number" and "Revision" (see attached).  Neither of these is the same property as the Inventor iProperty because if I change that in my part, it does not update in the Vault Explorer window.

I did look at the Property Definitions in vault Pro.  Does this look correct?

1. What are these two column headings in Vault Pro?

2. How do I get this Inventor Property to show up in Vault Pro?

Thanks,

Kirk

[Neil_Cross]

Revision and Rev Number are meant to be different.  I'll try and explain, although it's difficult without it being long winded.

The heading "Revision" in Vault Pro is a global property which is assigned against any and every file in Vault, all files in Vault have this heading against them.

But not all files in vault have the Inventor property called 'rev number'.  So using an Inventor file as an example, when you check in an Inventor file with 'a' in the 'rev number' property, Vault looks to your mappings and if there is a mapping between 'Revision' and 'rev number', nothing will happen, but if your 'Revision' heading is blank it will tell you that there is a mismatch by displaying the non-compliant property icon.  The mismatch being that your Inventor file has a letter 'a' in the rev number, but your 'Revision' header is blank.

Although the mapping is usually bi-directional, the general normal mapping is Revision -> rev number.  So for example if you use the 'change revision' function in Vault and make an Inventor file revision B, then click 'synchronise properties', Vault will push that letter B into the iProperty rev number as instructed in the mappings.

This then applies to things like AutoCAD files, they don't have the 'rev number' property, so you'd create an additional mapping between 'Revision' to a title block attribute.  Then synchronise properties would push the letter B into that attribute.

So the 'Revision' heading is a common shared revision property used against all files, and then you map that into the various file types.

You also need to make sure that the rev number property is used against the document category that the file is on...! 

Wow this really isn't easy to explain but that's as simple as I can make it!

[smilinger]

Let me try to explain it too, this is the long-winded version:

What we are talking about here are actually three properties:

1. The Revision property in vault, which is a system property.
2. The Rev Number property in vault, which is a UDP, aka User Defined Property.
3. The Rev Number property in the file, in case of inventor it's an iProperty.

Most UDPs are created in vault simply because there are such properties in our files and we also want them to show up in vault. So they are by default mapped to the corresponding file properties. In this case, the Rev Number property in vault is mapped to the Rev Number iProperty in inventor (or other similar properties of other file types). The mapping is by default bi-directional, which means either side can be the source of property change. You can change the Rev Number iProperty in inventor and after checking in, the property value will be pushed to the Rev Number property in vault, and vice versa. If you are using Vault Basic, then this is almost the whole story. You manually change the Rev Number property either in vault or in inventor, to maintain your document revision history.

Now we are using Vault pro, one of the big difference which distinguishes Vault Pro from Vault Basic is that we have internal revision control functionality, which is just the Revision property used for. Revision is a system property, which means every file in vault, will have this property. However besides the Revision property we also have something called revision scheme, which decides what values the Revision property will use, typically either alphabetical or numerical. Some category of files in vault have no revision scheme and hence have no revision value, which is most of the case in your screenshot, your files have either the Base category or another category which have no revision scheme.

By default, vault has no property mapping for Revision property, you need manually create a property mapping for it, most of us will map the Revision to the Rev Number (the property in file), which is single-directional (actually you cannot map it as bi-directional), means the value can only be pushed from Revision to the Rev Number, no vice versa. You can try to change the Rev Number in your inventor file, however after checking in the property value will not be pushed to the Revision property. It's not working that way, instead vault will complain that the value in the file is not the same as it is in the Revision property, which is a so-called Property Non-compliance error. In such situation we can use the Synchronize Properties command in the Actions menu to solve the problem, however after using this command, the value on the file will be updated with the value of the Revision property, not vice versa.

Actually we will not change the Rev Number manually either in inventor or in vault pro, it's not working this way anymore, instead we will use lifecycles (which is another even bigger story) to bump the revision automatically, or you can also manually change it with the Change Revision command. After the Revision bump, if you are only using vault, you still need the Synchronize Properties command to push the value to the Rev Number property on your file. However if you are using Inventor or AutoCAD or even Office with a vault add-in, every time when you check out a file, it will ask you to update properties, then the new Revision value will be pushed onto the Rev Number property. It's a natural process, no need of the Synchronize Properties command. So this is how it works now with the vault pro Revision control system.

You still have a way to push Rev Number value to Revision value using the Change Revision command, but this is not the normal workflow, you should only use it when importing some old files into vault, which are already revised many times, hence have revision numbers other than the initial A or 1, and you want to keep these old revision number.

Normally when you have set up the Revision in vault, the Rev Number property in vault is not necessary any more, you can remove the Rev Number property from the category definition, otherwise it could cause confusion. So the Rev Number property will not show in vault any more, most of the time.

[karthur1]

Neil, Smilinger:

Thanks for the response.

Here is the way that I want the thing to work:

1. We are using Vault Pro, but we are not using it for lifecycle management.
2. We manually add the rev number to the Inventor ipt/iam. The rev number on the idw document is always blank, but the rev number in the titleblock is pulled in from the ipt/iam on the idw.
3. I want to add a column in Vault for the Rev Number.  If I edit this in Vault, it will be pushed out to the ipt/iam.... or... If I change the rev number in the ipt/iam, it will get pushed into vault upon check-in.

I looked at the Vault property definitions. I see where the "Rev Number" property is provided by Inventor. I also noticed in the Property Definitions that this property is written only one way (from Vault to document). So I edited the Property Definition so the Rev Number is written both ways.  It seems to be working correctly now.

This also fixed the issue of when I opened a model from Vault, it would say "Some Properties have been edited.. do you want to update them?" dialog.  If I say "yes" to this, then the rev number for the model was gone.  We were aleeing the non-compliance errors and this seems to fix those issues as well.  I just need to run a Re-Index properties on the ADMS.

Here is what I changed.

Kirk

[smilinger]

Got it. The config you did should work, even you have both Revision and Rev Number property mapped to the file property, in such situation, the UDP mapping will take precidence (a little weird I think).

I have no idea what the real situation it is, so I have not much to say. But in my opinion, may be you should let Vault to control your revisions, the way you are using vault now is not revision management, it's just property management, so you are not going to gain much from the vault's power.

I am a little curious, are you new to vault? Or do you have some specific reason not to use Revision, or Lifecycle?

[karthur1]

Not new to Vault.  Used Vault Basic for several years before moving to Vault Pro a couple years ago.  When we moved to Vault Pro, I have not had the training on Vault Revision management to get it to work like we want it. So for now we are pretty much using vault pro the way we were using Vault Basic.

One thing that I am not sure on how to do is how to get the UDP rev number on my legacy files translated to the Vault "Revision". But that is a different discussion probably.

I am still seeing the "Some properties may be out of date...." dialog when I check out a file from Vault.  I have not been able to run the ReIndex properties yet. but I was thinking that if I checkout/in the file it would index the properties of that file.  They way it is now, if I choose "Yes" to this dialog, then the rev number of my local file is overwritten with the rev number on the vaulted file. Even after I change the Rev number of the file and check it in, it still reverts back to the rev number in vault....I can't change it.  Here is a video of what I am seeing.  Notice that I change the rev number of the file and checked it in.  When I refresh the vault browser, the "Rev Number" column is blank (I thought it should be Axxxxx).

I then check-out the file again and this time, I answer "Yes" to the prompt. My local file had the rev number as "Axxxxx".  It now has "A". I understand it was overwritten because I answered "Yes" to the prompt, but I am not able to change the rev number on my file.

Kirk

[smilinger]

The Rev Number is not populating into vault probably because you do not have the Rev Number property for that file or for that category the file belong to. You can try add that property for the file manually from the Actions menu -> "Add or Remove Property", then you can try check out, change the property, check in again, this time the property should show up in vault.

Get the UDP rev number on you legacy files translated to the Vault "Revision" is actually surprisingly easy. After you get all the Rev Number property into vault and set up all the categories and revison schemes, you can just use the Change Revision command, like this:

Like what i said in my former post: this is not the normal workflow, you should only use it when importing some old files into vault, which is exactly what you are going through.

Looks like you have a long way to go., you'd better get some training first.

[karthur1]

I ended up removing the mapping for the Vault Rev number.  Now when I check out a file, I am promped with the "Some properties have changed....you want to update properties?" I can say either yes or no and it does not change my revision number that I have manually placed in the iproperty.

Also when I check the files in, I do not have the "Non-Compliance" error in the Vault Properties Grid.

I would like to eventually have Vault manage the versions. We have revision information on our idws entered in as Syetch symbols text  Would it be possible to translate that information from the sketch symbol to the Revision block in the drawings...or is that even necessary?

[ryan]

When starting to manage files using Vault Pro workflow in which you have been previously been using the Rev Number iproperty;

Administratively:

• Configure the Vault mapping for Revision Number to Read the value from the file.
• Configure the Vault mapping for Revision (System) to write the value to the file.

For each file you want to now manage with Vault Pro workflow, use the Change Revision function from Vault Explorer and then set the Revision based on UDP and choose Revision Number.  This will cause the Vault System Revision to jump to whatever value was in the Revision Number.  Repeat this step for each file.  You must use Change Revision within Vault Explorer because for some reason, the implementation of this command into the add-ins is different and doesn't have all the options (something that is true for other vault commands and the incosistency is boggling).

-Ryan