Vault Alternatives?

[ArchD]

I work at a multi-office, multi-discipline company where sharing drawings is necessary but only done by physically copying projects from server to server, relinking xrefs, breaking sheet set links and Civil 3D data shortcuts. We also have Revit users that cannot share projects at all.

I was able to convince the powers that be that the way we share projects needs to be evaluated. I presented Vault and as a CAD user, I want to go with it because of how well integrated it is with Autodesk products. The cost is very high and many of the higher-ups want to get some ideas for alternatives. 

Does anyone have recommendations, maybe as an in house IT solution, another file handling service, or any other ideas? 

Again, I want to go the Vault route, but I need more to present to sway them to choose it. So if any pros and cons that come with each alternative, or if you have pros and cons for Vault I would really like to hear them so I can help them figure out the best path.

[cbenner]

@ArchD

I don't know much about any other solutions, our company has been using Vault since it became an Autodesk product, and were Beta customers when it was True Vault.  We use the Professional level, mainly because of the ability to track life cycle and revision through the ECO process.  This may be a selling point for you.  Used right, this can produce a good audit trail for document changes.  The Copy Design feature is great for creating new projects from old ones.  I don't do a lot with xrefs (well, nothing), so I won't comment on how Vault handles those.  Others can tell you more I hope.

I'm sure you have the same thought, but the way you are doing it now sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.  Very least, Vault would give you version control and prevent users from overlapping drawing changes.

[ArchD]

You are correct, our current method has already caused comments from clients not to be included in submitting due to confusion on which office has the most up-to-date.

XRefs, data shortcuts and Sheet Set Management are three things we are concerned with. I know Vault handles all three natively so I want to go with that for less headaches. I see Meridian and Synergis both have some AutoCAD integration, but I don't know if they handle SSM files and Civil 3D data shortcuts.

[michael.battcock]

Hey Archie,

"I know Vault handles all three natively so I want to go with that for less headaches." I may be biased, but this is what I hear from many of our customers and I think is a critical thinking point when evaluating data management. Measuring some sort of formula regarding initial savings versus how much of a headache it is to manage and how that translates into overall cost breakdown is usually a good way to wrap people's heads around it.

Wish you the best of luck!

- Mike

[reidmatthew]

@ArchD

You may want to spend a few minutes on the Fusion Forums or looking at the Fusion 360 and Fusion Teams documentation. I am not a Fusion expert, but I know Fusion Teams allows for collaboration, some version management, and other features all in the cloud that may allow you to share your projects and files. I am not sure how well it works with Civil and AutoCAD projects and xrefs, for example, but those would be great questions for the Fusion Forums. 

There is also integration between Vault and Fusion 360/Fusion Teams in Vault 2019. Something else to keep in find if you go to Vault.

[Neil_Cross]

Not sure if this will help, but I made this video exactly for allowing people to show their management what Vault Pro can do as set up in an existing customer production environment.  This is a Vault Pro environment in an engineering business using full lifecycle control and automation for BOM to ERP export.  We have multi-site global replication enabled too but that's not demonstrated here.  

[ArchD]

This is a great video. Thanks a ton.

[Neil_Cross]

No probs, let me know if you have any further questions.

[djbounds]

I work at several large companies that used Meridian by Bluecielo, one was General Electric in Louisville, KY.   It is very customizable and a lot more useful for Inventor than Vault could ever dream to be.  Sadly I work for a company now that uses Vault and I'm getting very frustrated over the simplest things that Meridian could do.

[ArchD]

Does Meridian integrate with the Sheet Set Manager dst files?