Naviate Vault functionality

Naviate Manufacturing for Vault has been developed to address the needs of design teams working with document management, i.e. Autodesk Vault Workgroup or Professional (Note: basic Vault not supported). With the functionality, many things that are normally done manually can be automated and run at a predefined stage in the design process. All features can be run on Job Processor or directly by the Vault client.

The main features are:

ERP Export from Vault (manual or automatic)
Secondary file format generation from Vault (manual or automatic)
Property update in Vault (automatic)
Property management in Vault (manual)
Custom Actions (manual or automatic)

The automatic functionality is based upon state changes in Vault (release or similar).

Many of the features have support for conditional creation, which means that the job is only
executed if it meets a certain predefined criteria.

ERP Export from Vault

ERP Export from Vault is used for exporting information (iProperties and BOM) from Vault to a file. Exported file can be used by other systems, like ERP, in order to receive the needed information. The main features are:

ERP Export is run directly from files in Vault (no Vault Professional Item structures needed)
The function can be used for single files, i.e. drawings and parts, in order to export information about the files (iProperties)
The function can be used for assembly files with structure, in order to export the BOM
BOM is created based on Inventor Structured BOM and supports

multilevel, one level BOM or Parts Only
measurements of beams
overridden quantity values
virtual components

The function can be run manually and/or automatically, based on state changes in Vault
Support for conditional generation is included (Job is only executed if value is evaluated to True)

according to Property value in Vault

Configuration for Jobserver or client
Output file to XML (xslt), CSV and SQL
Support for file naming
Can use Inventor (requires license) or Apprentice Server (requires no license but file needs to be up to date)
For drawings, choose properties from drawing or model.

Secondary file format generation from Vault

Secondary file format generation from Vault is used for generating secondary formats, like PDF, of files situated in the Vault. The main features are:

Secondary file format generation is run directly from files in Vault (Vault Professional Item structures with attached files are not needed/supported)
The following file types are supported:

Inventor Drawing (IDW/DWG): PDF, AutoCAD DWG, DXF, DWF, DWFx
Inventor Part: STEP, SAT, DXF, DWF
Inventor Assembly: STEP, SAT, DWF

The function can be run manually and/or automatically, based on state changes in Vault
Support for conditional generation is included (Job is only executed if value is evaluated to True)

according to Property value in Vault
according to Sheet name (only Inventor Drawings)

Jobprocessor is used (Inventor and Vault license needed). Client side executions are possible, but should be used with care.
Secondary file formats are stored in Vault and/or outside the Vault (on server). Following settings are available for files stored in Vault:

state and/or revision change according to source file
link to source file (attachment)

Support for file naming

Property update in Vault

Property update in Vault is used for updating individual Property values for files in the Vault. Usual Property values that need to be updated are related to approval of files, when a file is released, i.e. Approver initials and date of approval. The main features are:

Property Update is run directly for files in Vault (Vault Professional Items are not supported)
The following features are supported:

Predefined value for Property, i.e. text
Computed value for Property, i.e. Vault or Windows username, or Current date

The function is run automatically, based on state changes in Vault.
Property updates can run on client prior to state transition, on the client after state transition or get queued to the job processor (Version 2015.2.1 and later)(Vault license needed to run on Job Processor).
Set the update to run on the actual file version or latest.

Property management in Vault

Property management in Vault is used for checking and changing Property values in Vault. A tab named "Naviate" is available and used for the functionality. The main features are:

Configurable tab in Vault for

checking Property values
changing Property values (only as text; dropdowns, series etc. NOT supported in this release)

Properties are showed for one file at a time (Vault properties)
Possibility to define shown properties for different file types and categories
The following files types are supported:

Inventor file types, i.e. part, assembly, drawing
other formats file types, e.g. STEP, DXF, AutoCAD DWG, XLSX, DOCX, PDF

Actions sets

All automatic generations are run using Actions sets. Actions sets help setting up the automatic functions in Naviate Vault and define the order in which the different actions are executed. An action is for example a Property Update and a Secondary Format Generation to PDF. Some things about Actions Sets:

Action sets can be configured for Assemblies, Parts and Drawings, MS Office and MS Excel documents. There is also a "Generic Document" option, for any kind of file. For Vault Pro 2015 R2 an later, there is an option to run Action Sets on Items as well.
Action sets can include one or more

Property Updates
Secondary file format generations
ERP Exports
Custom Actions

Multiple Action Sets can be configured for a file type and/or state transition.
Actions within an Action Set can be run on three different events.

Pre - runs on the client right after the user clicked that "change state" button, but before the document actually reached the state. This means that the user still has all the rights to edit properties, et.c. before going to a locked state.
Post - runs on the client right after the document reached the desired state. The user needs to have credentials to perform the actions in this state.
Queue - Send a part action set to the Job Queue to be processed when the Job Processor is available.

Additional content

Here are some additional things about Naviate Vault:

All Settings are saved in Vault for easy distribution to the clients. In Vault you can find the settings stored in an XML file
Naviate Vault has its own configuration tool that builds up the XML file (not depending on the Naviate Manufacturing configuration used for Inventor)
Naviate Vault Configuration tool and Client are separately installed. Configuration tool should be installed only on those client computers that need to get access to the configurations (for adding and changing configurations). Naviate Vault Client needs to be installed on all client computers that use Naviate Vault, including also users using only Vault W/P (not necessarily having Inventor installed on computer)
Remember that Jobprocessor is a client program, meaning that the Naviate Vault Client needs to be installed on the server also (as Jobprocessor is usually run on the server)

Naviate Vault functionality - Overview

Naviate Vault functionality

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