We are using purely Item centric way of working with Vault. This means that files are controlled by the Items lifecycle states. If the Item is Released, files are locked and so on.
Problem is when it comes to components marked as Phantom, Reference or Purchased as they are handled differently in the Assign Item process. And they should, but there is no way to handle these with an Item Centric lifecycle.
Phantom - Never becomes an Item
Reference - Never becomes an Item
Purchased - If an assembly is marked as Purchased, its children will never be Items
What I would like to see is that Vault do create Items out of these components to a specific Item type i.e. with same names "Phantom, Reference etc." so they get visible and handled in the structure.
I would also like to see the CAD BOM inside Vault which corresponds to the Model tab in Inventor. There is no way to identify for example a Phantom assembly inside Vault.
Preferrably one tab with the CAD BOM and then another tab with the EBOM (corresponds to the Structure tab, same as it is now).
There are numerous ways to solve this with different workarounds, I know.
One way is to never, ever use Phantom or Reference and use a Property telling i.e. an ERP integration to do the needful. Another could be to have a small lifecycle for these files with "Locked" and "Unlocked" states.
But still it is a hassle for the engineers and I am sure it can be done by making Vault better.
I have a feeling that there has not been any real development on the Item Master side in Vault for ages, now we see a lot of interest in using the "Item centric way of working" so maybe it is time for a makeover.
Thanks!
