Vault Pro 2018 - PDF Publishing

[gavbath]

So I'm trying to battle my way through implementing the PDF visualisation files so I can see how it works and I've hit a few snags already. The documentation seems very limited.

Firstly, it seems that you are required to use the special lifecycle state and category called "Design Representation." I may have interpreted that incorrectly, but that's my current understanding. That would be ok, except that when migrating from a Vault Pro 2017, that state and category didn't get created.

Secondly, I had tried simply changing the "Action" for the "WIP -> Released" transition to "Synchronise properties, update view, and publish PDF" but that seemed to do nothing. Doing a manual update of the visualisation didn't generate the pdf either.

OK, I thought, I'll just export my old configuration, hack it to include the requried stuff from a config exported from a new clean Vault, and then reimport it. The export failed, and from the log I could see it what because it wasn't expecting "4" for a "SyncPropState." I intuited that this was caused by the fact that I had set the transition action as I mentioned above, so I changed it back, and then the config exported.

I'm now about to go through and try and hack the config to get it to include the new stuff....

Wish me luck.

[Senthil_Kumar]

Gavin,

Thanks for your feedback on the documentation. We will see how we can improve the documentation. At least for the PDF for now.

I hope you should be able to get the PDF on the migrated Vault with the new config. Wish you all the best. If you still see any issue please do let us know.

[mark.cloyed]

I am experiencing a similar failure.  I initially started with an upgraded vault, verified the PDF options, created a Design Representation category, rule, and lifecycle.  I configured the flexible release process to create the PDF upon state transition and have tried an IISreset and rebooting the server, but cannot get the PDFs created.  I also tried creating a new vault using the manufacturing configuration.  In this case, the category, rule, and lifecycle are there.  I again configured the transitions in the flexible release process lifecycle, but again, no PDFs created.  This worked in the beta version of the software.  In that case, I had an existing vault that was restored, I created the category, rule, and lifecycle.  I believe it starting working after a reboot.  Am I mistaken in thinking that the PDF was created upon the initial first check-in of the file?  I do not see that in the RTM environment.  I do not know what I have missed when configuring the RTM environment.  Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

[ihayesjr]

One simple way to get the PDF category, lifecycle and other necessary things setup in a migrated Vault, you can import a CFG file from the default configuration files that are provided on the Vault server.  These configuration files are found in the Autodesk\ADMS Professional 2018\ADMS Console\Configurations folder.

[mark.cloyed]

Hi Irvin,

Thanks very much for the suggestion.  I can try that to see if it affects my situation.

[gavbath]

Unfortunately, I haven't managed to merge the config files successfully yet, so I'm still stuck with getting PDFs to work in a clean config, or not having the required categories etc in the existing vault.

I could create everything manually if I had a list of what is required. So far I know there is a "Design Representation Process" lifecycle, and a "Design Representation" category. Is there anything else? Can the same functionality be achieved with custom category and lifecycle, or is it hard-coded to look for those names somewhere. When I tried it in my own setup, the PDFs didn't generate, but perhaps I missed something.

Another thing, can this pdf publishing work with an item-centric workflow? So if I release the item, it will lock the attached file, but also generate the PDF and release it? I haven't tried it myself yet, but if there's an easy answer then it might save me some time.

[ihayesjr · Accepted solution]

Gavin,

The assignment to a specific category and lifecycle definition is not locked to the "Design Representation" name. You should create a category rule that assigns the PDF to the category based on the Classification property being "Design Representation". Take a look my blog article talking about all of the components.

[mark.cloyed]

I have tried creating a new vault using the manufacturing configuration file.  I see the design representation category, rule and lifecycle in place.  I check the PDF options and they look to be set correctly to create PDFs.  I configure the flexible release lifecycle to synch props, dwf and pdf on the wip to review transition.  When I add a file I still do not see the PDF created.  when I transition the file to review, I see the synch props job task, then I see the pdf create job task processed, and lastly the dwf create job task processed.  There are no errors in the job queue.  Back at the file, I see it is now in the review state, but there is no PDF.  The uses tab does not show any attachments.  Is there any sort of log file created for the job processor actions?

[ihayesjr]

@mark.cloyed,

The PDF will only get created if you are transitioning to a State which is marked as "This is a Released state" in the Control tab of the state.

[mark.cloyed]

Success!  Thanks Irvin!  I did not realize that the destination state must be a released state.  That was my error.  Thanks again.

[jweiss1313]

Irvin,

Will importing a CFG change my current Vault configuration?  I'm concerned about doing this because I don't want my current Vault configuration to change.  We've been using Vault for a while now and have gotten it configured to work great in our environment.

We are a manufacturing company, which of the four CFG files do you recommend that we import.

I'm very happy that you have added this functionality  to Vault, but it would have been nice to have a detailed technical document that defines all the steps necessary to implement this on an existing Vault.  This makes a CAD Manager's life a lot easier!  This is just friendly feedback!

Thanks for your help.

[ihayesjr · Accepted solution]

John,

When you import a configuration file, it will only add new objects (properties, categories, lifecycles) to your Vault that do not exist. It will not change existing objects.  As with any uncertainty, I always recommend that you have a test environment of your production environment so that you can try out new settings or configuration before pushing them to productions.  If you want to import an existing configuration, you can import the MFGVault.cfg file located in the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS Professional 2018\ADMS Console\Configurations folder.

If you prefer to add this manually, you can perform the steps in the attached document.

[jweiss1313]

Thank you so much Irvin.  I followed your instruction and I'm getting closers.  Vault is creating the PDF files, but they are showing up as base category files and they are not attached to the Inventor drawing files.  Any idea what could be wrong?  See attached screen capture.

[ihayesjr]

On page 2 of the document see "Configure your own rule for Design Representation".

Make sure this rule is higher in the list then the default category.

[jweiss1313]

Irvin,

Thank you very much for your help.  That did the trick!

[Anonymous]

Irvin, 

In the config pdf it states:

5. In the Release State, we have to Allow Modification under the Security tab (Note: The same goes for the Release Process of the Source File as well)

Doesn't this open up the source files in a released state for modification when they should in fact be locked down at that point?  

[ihayesjr]

You should have a dedicate Vault User that perform all Job Processor jobs. Then configure the Release State to only allow that user to modify the file in the Released state.

[CAD-One]

Sorry if anyone feels that I am hijacking the post, but my question is on the same topic "pdf publishing"

Is there a way to control the extension of the file? I don't like it names "FileName.idw.pdf". How can I have the vault name it FileName.pdf?

Is there a way to change the location of the file creation?

[Anonymous]

If I am not mistaken, I think what you are looking for is at the bottom of Irvin's blog mentioned earlier in the thread.

[Senthil_Kumar]

You can refer this Blog - http://underthehood-autodesk.typepad.com/blog/2017/04/it-is-all-about-the-pdf.html on how to remove the extension or to add any prefix or suffix to the PDF file name. Here is the extract from the Blog

Navigate to the Autodesk Vault Professional 2018 install folder. Open the Explorer subfolder and copy the JobProcessor.exe.config file. Open the original config file and add any of keys below to the appSettings section to get the desired PDF file name.

Key	Result Name
<add key="DesignRepresentation.Naming" value="\.(idw)$/Prefix&lt;_name_&gt;Postfix"/>	PrefixFlowerPostfix.pdf
<add key="DesignRepresentation.Naming" value="\.(idw)$/Prefix&lt;_name_&gt;"/>	PrefixFlower.pdf
<add key="DesignRepresentation.Naming" value="\.(idw)$/&lt;_name_&gt;"/>	Flower.pdf
<add key="DesignRepresentation.Naming" value="\.(idw)$/&lt;_name_&gt;Postfix"/>	FlowerPostfix.pdf
Invalid Key	Flower.idw.pdf or Error