Vault Professional 2018 revision state behavior in Inventor

[CeesNooij]

Hello there,

Something we run into all the time.

How to make revisions while models are open in Inventor. 

So I'm busy with a revision in a sub assembly and discover I have to make a revision on the main assembly as well.

In attachment I have placed screenshots of my Vault browser (In Inventor) with 4 steps.

1. My main assembly is locked, because it's released. Three yellow circles with exclamation mark are show for the already revised and checked in sub models.

2. In Vault professional the main assembly state is changed from released to Work in Progress. A triangle is shown after a refresh.

3. On the main assembly I do a "Get Revision..." Inventor asks me if I'm sure to change the local sub assemblies and I choose "No to All" expecting that my local file will not be overwritten.

4. Latest revision of the main assembly is local and Checked Out. But the Sub models are also replaced with the last Released state. Changes made are locally overwritten.

After step 4 I have to do a Get Revision on the sub files with triangles.

This behavior is very strange to me and I wonder what the proper protocol is or if there is a setting to be changed.

Hope anyone can help me with this, cause I'm afraid that in the future it might go wrong and changes are not saved.

Thanks in advance

Cees

[ihayesjr]

I think your first problem is the exclamation icons next to the sub-assemblies. This icon indicates that Vault is not clear what revision or version these assemblies are. You should clear this up first by performing a Get Revision on the main assembly which should overwrite the local sub-assemblies with the revisions you need. Then you should see the triangle icon next to them. Then proceed with the change state on the main assembly.

[CeesNooij]

Hi Irvin,

Thanks for your reply.

I get what you tell me, though this is an impossible working method, as far as I know.

The exclamation marks indicate that Inventor sees an unexpected revision, cause last time Inventor checked this assembly in, the sub assemblies had another revision. What I don't understand is why Vault and Inventor do not communicate what the latest version is.

But indeed I want to get rid of these marks first.

How? I think by saving the assembly and check it in, so Inventor sees the latest revision as the correct one.

Though I cannot do that because the assembly is Released and thus locked.

And I do not want to see the triangles, cause then I have to manually search for them in the browser and Get the latest revision.

The whole behavior is strange. Everybody here has troubles with it and no one knows how to deal with it. What I mentioned here is just a tip of the iceberg, cause in other situations there are other problems.

Biggest issue here I guess, is that Inventor and Vault are not (correctly) communicating with each other.

And why is Inventor overwriting my local files while I explicitly asked not to do that? (Inventor asked if I'm sure to replace local files for Vault ones)

Sorry for the long rant, but I have big problems with the fact that I have to be so alert to get it correct, while this has to go automatically correct.

Kind regards

Cees

[ihayesjr]

@CeesNooij 

To get rid of the exclamation marks, before you move the top-level assembly from released to Work in Progress, in the Vault client perform a Get on the top-level assembly. Make sure that it is set to override the local files and make sure you have selected to get the latest of all components. This workflow will reset the exclamation icon to the correct icon status which is a clear circle.

[CeesNooij]

Sorry Irvin, not working.

What you say is, close Inventor and do a Get in Vault Professional, right?

After opening in Inventor, exclamation marks are still there.

Normally "Revert to Latest" works best. But I think that's a work around.

System fails big time I think.

Work flow is terrible.

Kind regards,

Cees

[ihayesjr]

@CeesNooij ,

You do not need to close Inventor, you do need to make sure that the assembly and it's sub-components are not open in Inventor.

Go to the Vault Client, execute a Get on the top-level assembly. In the Get dialog make sure that you have the Force Overwrite option set.

This should remove the exclamation icons.  If it doesn't please create a video so I can see what you are experiencing.

[CeesNooij]

Sorry for not replying Irvin.

Other work activities makes me busy with other priorities.

Further, I wouldn't know how to make that video.

And I'm quite sure you never remove the exclamation icons without Checking in the main assembly, which is not allowed while it is released and locked.

As far as I know the exclamation icons means that the Assembly sees a different revision than the last time the Assembly was Checked in.

Kind regards,

Cees

[ihayesjr]

As stated in the Help topic:

the exclamation icon means:

There has been an unexpected revision with the file or the status could not be determined. See the tooltip for more information.

The exclamation can be removed by performing a Get, with the Force Overwrite selected, on the files with that status.