An In-Depth Look at Autodesk Vault's Copy Design

00:00

[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03

ANDREW SHAW: Hello, everyone, and thank you

00:05

for watching this accelerator.

00:06

Today, we'll be taking an in-depth look at Vault's Copy

00:10

Design functionality.

00:12

Before we start, let me display the usual safe harbor statement

00:16

as you just get to spend the next 30 seconds reading it.

00:42

My name is Andrew Shaw, and I'm a designated support specialist

00:46

at Autodesk.

00:47

And my specialty is data and document management.

00:51

Autodesk accelerators are designed

00:53

to help your team stay ahead of the curve with latest

00:56

workflows.

00:58

They include courses, videos, which

01:00

is what we are doing today, and life coaching.

01:03

You can see a full list of topics on the customer Success

01:06

Hub.

01:07

Here's a breakdown of today's topic.

01:10

I start with a brief introduction,

01:12

followed by an explanation about the user interface

01:15

and how you can customize it.

01:17

Then, I'll talk about numbering schemes, the various actions

01:20

that you can select for files, and how to create, manage,

01:24

and apply rule sets.

01:26

Finally, I'll show you various scenarios for copying files,

01:29

and we provide you with a set of best practices.

01:34

Let's start with the introduction.

01:36

Over the years, World Copy Design

01:38

has become one of the key functionalities

01:40

to improve user productivity.

01:42

By enabling users to reuse existing designs,

01:45

this functionality reduced over time and therefore the cost.

01:50

Depending on which design application you are using,

01:52

copying a design involves copying

01:55

a drawing and its related files, copying an entire design

01:59

structure along with the related

02:03

copying components of a design.

02:06

There are two versions of Copy Design, one

02:09

that comes with Vault Basic and another

02:12

that comes with both Vault Workgroup and Vault

02:14

Professional.

02:16

This accelerator will focus on the latter version.

02:20

Now let's have a look at how you can open Copy Design

02:23

and access its user interface.

02:26

The three most common ways to open Vault Professional's Copy

02:29

Design application are from the Vault Explorer,

02:32

from Windows start menu, and as of release 2022 0.1,

02:38

from inventor's Vault browser.

02:42

Copy Design is a mode less dialogue with a toolbar.

02:45

It can remain open while you use the Vault

02:47

client for other commands, as well as add files to be copied.

02:52

There are four major sections of the Copy Design user

02:55

interface--

02:56

the main menu, the toolbars, the main grid,

03:00

and the four navigation panels.

03:04

The menu bar consists of five menus--

03:06

file, view, actions, options, and help menu.

03:12

The main grid shows the name of the files

03:15

available for copy, the destination folder, the action

03:20

that will be performed on the file, the revision

03:23

and state of the file, and how many instances of the file

03:27

occur within the current list.

03:30

The columns displayed in the grid

03:31

represent the properties for that object in the Vault.

03:35

You can customize which columns are displayed

03:37

and the order in which they are displayed.

03:40

You can also customize how the main grid looks.

03:43

You do so by selecting from three views--

03:46

the preview, the list view, and the folder view.

03:51

If you select the preview, you will display the assembly

03:54

in an organized configuration, which

03:57

shows the hierarchy of the assembly

03:59

and associated files in the copy process.

04:02

If you select the list view, it displays

04:04

all of the files associated with the file selected in the copy

04:07

process.

04:09

And if you go for the folder view,

04:11

it displays the submission folder

04:13

where the new files are placed after the copy process is

04:15

complete.

04:17

Just be aware that depending on the View you select,

04:20

only a selection of operations are available.

04:23

Those are listed in the chart on the right.

04:27

There are four different navigation panels.

04:30

The where used panel lets you track the origin of the copy

04:33

objects and the destination.

04:36

The actions panel lets you review

04:38

which operations are assigned to be performed

04:40

on files in the main view.

04:43

The numbering panel lists all of the files selected for copy.

04:47

It also shows the original and new name

04:49

for each selected file.

04:52

The folder panel lets you review the source and destination

04:55

folders for the Copy Design operation.

04:58

Now let's have a look at how the user interface can be

05:01

customized to suit your needs.

05:04

There are many ways to customize copy designs interface.

05:07

You can do the usual adding, removing,

05:10

and rearranging of columns.

05:12

You can toggle grid lines in binding on and off.

05:15

You can choose whether you want to display the fine panel.

05:19

And you can select to automatically resize

05:21

columns to fit within the available view area.

05:26

You can also simplify your Copy Design interface

05:28

by undocking panels, changing the docking location,

05:32

or turning off panels so that they do not display.

05:36

As per many customizations in the enrolled client,

05:39

the changes you do are stored in various XML files.

05:43

Just keep in mind with the best practice

05:45

is to always change the configurations in the user

05:47

interface and not manually edit those XML files.

05:52

Let me show you how this customization works.

05:55

As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways

05:58

to customize copy designs interface.

06:00

For the sake of this demo, I'll open Copy Design from the Vault

06:03

client by right clicking on inventor assembly

06:07

and selecting Copy Design from the menu which

06:09

is offered to me.

06:17

As you can see, the user interface opens,

06:20

and the assembly is loaded in the main grid

06:22

that I've set up to show the information as a preview.

06:25

Let's see what happens when I change it to list view

06:31

and then to folder view.

06:50

Now that I'm back in preview, I noticed

06:52

that the column showing me the version of the file is missing.

06:56

Let's add it.

07:17

One thing I didn't mention is that you

07:19

can select the alignment of the text for each column

07:21

individually.

07:31

Also about columns, they are automatically

07:34

sized by default. However, if you

07:36

want to control the width for which column,

07:38

this is how you turn the option off.

07:49

In the main grid itself, I can also

07:51

toggle the grid line and the bounding on and off.

07:54

I do however prefer them to be both on as it's easier

07:58

to read the screen.

08:12

As for the fine panel, this is how you display it.

08:22

And to close it, just click on the red X on the left of it.

08:27

Finally, you can select which panel you want displayed

08:30

and if you want them floating outside the user interface

08:32

or not.

09:11

The next topic is numbering schemes and actions.

09:15

Numbering schemes let you configure

09:17

how files, items, and change orders

09:19

are named when they are added to a Vault. As a reminder,

09:23

numbering schemes are created in the administration vault

09:26

setting section that you can access via the Vault client

09:30

with the appropriate permissions.

09:32

In Copy Design's user interface, you

09:34

can select numbering schemes to set

09:36

which name scheme are valid for use in your Copy Design

09:39

configuration.

09:42

There are four main types of actions--

09:44

copy, reuse, replace, and exclude.

09:48

When you assign an action to a file in the Copy Design grid,

09:51

the action displays in the action column.

09:56

Let's have a look at those four main action types.

09:59

The copy action is really self-explanatory.

10:02

It enables you to create a copy of a file or a branch,

10:06

either in the same location or in the location of your choice.

10:11

With the replace action, you can replace the selected file

10:14

with another file.

10:16

Then you can decide to reuse some

10:17

of the files of the assembly you've decided to copy.

10:20

And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense

10:23

that you might want to reuse parts of an assembly

10:26

when you do a copy.

10:27

Not everything needs to be redesigned.

10:29

And if a part is to be used in several products,

10:32

you don't want to have to check with every single instance

10:35

of that part that is stored in the Vault

10:37

is updated in the same way.

10:40

Finally, the exclude action can be used on parent documentation

10:44

files.

10:46

The next topic is creating, managing,

10:48

and applying rule sets.

10:51

A rule set is a collection of property rules

10:53

that determine file properties behavior during a copy

10:56

operation.

10:58

When you run a copy operation, rule sets

11:00

can be used to reset the category of the target

11:03

file, map file properties, and clear or reset some

11:08

or all the file properties.

11:12

If you want more details on the rule set interface,

11:15

you can refer to the online help where everything

11:18

is listed and explained.

11:22

The final section of this Copy Design path

11:24

is to go through the various processes I've described.

11:28

This walkthrough will show you how

11:30

to select a sub-assembly in the Vault client

11:32

and open Copy Design, configure the grid, column filtering,

11:37

resizing, et cetera, determine the files to be copied

11:40

and reused, define the rule set that maps the path

11:44

number to the file name and select the rule set

11:47

to be applied, rename some files using the search

11:50

and replace functionality, test the duplicate files warning

11:54

and run the copy, show a Copy Design of the previous version

11:59

and of derived parts.

12:02

So let's start this walkthrough by selecting

12:05

a sub-assembly in the Vault client

12:08

and opening the Copy Design.

12:10

We've been through the user interface customization process

12:13

earlier.

12:14

So we'll skip that part.

12:16

The first thing we're going to do in Copy Design

12:19

is to create a rule that maps the path number to the file

12:22

name.

12:28

So I click on new, give a name to the rule set, the rule,

12:51

select the criteria which determines to which files

12:56

the rule is going to apply.

12:57

In this case, we just want to apply to every single file.

13:01

So we're going to take filename and I would just

13:04

say is not empty.

13:07

So any fire that has a filename would

13:10

have the rule apply to it.

13:14

Then I would say select part number,

13:22

set value as, and filename.

13:27

This means that now the filename is mapped to the part number

13:31

property.

13:33

Click OK.

13:36

Apply and click OK again.

13:41

Now, as you can see in the action rules,

13:44

when you create a new rule, it's not shown by default.

13:48

So we want to display it and click OK.

13:52

The next step is to select the rule in the toolbar.

14:01

Then we're going to determine which parts are to be copied

14:04

and which are to be reused.

14:06

For this exercise, I'm first going to select the assembly

14:09

and copy the branch to a different folder.

14:20

Then I'm going to select a couple of parts

14:21

and decide to reuse them.

14:30

We are not going to use the Find and Replace functionality

14:32

to change Plate Gerundete Ecken to Plate Rounded Corners

14:38

as we use this will be working this copy prefer

14:41

English to German.

14:57

Click on replace all.

14:59

And as you can see, the text has been

15:01

changed to the new version.

15:03

Close this.

15:05

Finally, we're going to execute the copy.

15:26

As we can see in the old client, the relevant files

15:30

have been copied and renamed.

15:37

Once a copy is finished, green ticks

15:39

are displayed in the grid for the parts that have been copied

15:42

and the execute command is carried out.

15:46

If you make no changes in the grid,

15:48

you cannot execute the copy again.

15:50

However, if you were to make a change

15:52

and execute the copy again, such as, for example,

15:57

decide to reuse a part, it will detect duplicate files

16:02

and display an error message.

16:09

Finally, here are some best practices

16:12

for when you use Copy Design.

16:15

Unless attachments are set to remove in the Copy Design

16:18

process, they will get attached to the new parent file.

16:22

The exclude action can only be set on documentation files

16:25

when the link drawings with mother option

16:27

is unchecked in the Options menu.

16:30

The remove action can only be set on attachments.

16:34

Newly created files should be placed in the same folder

16:37

as a file it was copied from unless the destination path is

16:41

changed.

16:42

Add the original filename column to the main grid

16:45

to see the original filename.

16:48

PDF files created by the Job Processor

16:50

will not appear in the Copy Design dialog

16:52

and are ignored by the copy process.

16:56

Finally, if an Inventor fire has multiple ideological rules,

16:59

you can choose to remove either all the ideological rules

17:02

or none during Copy Design.

17:04

You cannot choose to remove specific rules.

17:09

Now for a few additional resources

17:11

where you can find information about Vault

17:13

in general and Copy Design.

17:16

You have the Vault online help where

17:19

you will find all information related to all Vault

17:22

functionalities, the Autodesk Developer Network

17:25

also known as ADN.

17:27

ADN was created for developers seeking proven tools

17:30

and technologies to extend Autodesk products

17:32

and technologies.

17:34

You have the Vault Customization Forum,

17:36

where you can share your knowledge

17:38

and ask questions about customization,

17:42

the Autodesk app store, a centralized storefront

17:44

for Autodesk customers to find apps

17:46

that enhance their productivity using their Autodesk products,

17:50

Under The Hood, Vault's official blog, the Autodesk University

17:56

site, which is a repository for all Autodesk University

17:59

sessions recordings.

18:01

There are over 150 Vault classes available,

18:05

the Vault customization blog called

18:08

It's All Just Ones and Zeros, and finally,

18:12

Vault's YouTube channel, The Vault Knows All,

18:15

Thank you all for listening, and I

18:17

hope you enjoyed this Vault Copy Design session.

Video transcript

00:00

[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03

ANDREW SHAW: Hello, everyone, and thank you

00:05

for watching this accelerator.

00:06

Today, we'll be taking an in-depth look at Vault's Copy

00:10

Design functionality.

00:12

Before we start, let me display the usual safe harbor statement

00:16

as you just get to spend the next 30 seconds reading it.

00:42

My name is Andrew Shaw, and I'm a designated support specialist

00:46

at Autodesk.

00:47

And my specialty is data and document management.

00:51

Autodesk accelerators are designed

00:53

to help your team stay ahead of the curve with latest

00:56

workflows.

00:58

They include courses, videos, which

01:00

is what we are doing today, and life coaching.

01:03

You can see a full list of topics on the customer Success

01:06

Hub.

01:07

Here's a breakdown of today's topic.

01:10

I start with a brief introduction,

01:12

followed by an explanation about the user interface

01:15

and how you can customize it.

01:17

Then, I'll talk about numbering schemes, the various actions

01:20

that you can select for files, and how to create, manage,

01:24

and apply rule sets.

01:26

Finally, I'll show you various scenarios for copying files,

01:29

and we provide you with a set of best practices.

01:34

Let's start with the introduction.

01:36

Over the years, World Copy Design

01:38

has become one of the key functionalities

01:40

to improve user productivity.

01:42

By enabling users to reuse existing designs,

01:45

this functionality reduced over time and therefore the cost.

01:50

Depending on which design application you are using,

01:52

copying a design involves copying

01:55

a drawing and its related files, copying an entire design

01:59

structure along with the related

02:03

copying components of a design.

02:06

There are two versions of Copy Design, one

02:09

that comes with Vault Basic and another

02:12

that comes with both Vault Workgroup and Vault

02:14

Professional.

02:16

This accelerator will focus on the latter version.

02:20

Now let's have a look at how you can open Copy Design

02:23

and access its user interface.

02:26

The three most common ways to open Vault Professional's Copy

02:29

Design application are from the Vault Explorer,

02:32

from Windows start menu, and as of release 2022 0.1,

02:38

from inventor's Vault browser.

02:42

Copy Design is a mode less dialogue with a toolbar.

02:45

It can remain open while you use the Vault

02:47

client for other commands, as well as add files to be copied.

02:52

There are four major sections of the Copy Design user

02:55

interface--

02:56

the main menu, the toolbars, the main grid,

03:00

and the four navigation panels.

03:04

The menu bar consists of five menus--

03:06

file, view, actions, options, and help menu.

03:12

The main grid shows the name of the files

03:15

available for copy, the destination folder, the action

03:20

that will be performed on the file, the revision

03:23

and state of the file, and how many instances of the file

03:27

occur within the current list.

03:30

The columns displayed in the grid

03:31

represent the properties for that object in the Vault.

03:35

You can customize which columns are displayed

03:37

and the order in which they are displayed.

03:40

You can also customize how the main grid looks.

03:43

You do so by selecting from three views--

03:46

the preview, the list view, and the folder view.

03:51

If you select the preview, you will display the assembly

03:54

in an organized configuration, which

03:57

shows the hierarchy of the assembly

03:59

and associated files in the copy process.

04:02

If you select the list view, it displays

04:04

all of the files associated with the file selected in the copy

04:07

process.

04:09

And if you go for the folder view,

04:11

it displays the submission folder

04:13

where the new files are placed after the copy process is

04:15

complete.

04:17

Just be aware that depending on the View you select,

04:20

only a selection of operations are available.

04:23

Those are listed in the chart on the right.

04:27

There are four different navigation panels.

04:30

The where used panel lets you track the origin of the copy

04:33

objects and the destination.

04:36

The actions panel lets you review

04:38

which operations are assigned to be performed

04:40

on files in the main view.

04:43

The numbering panel lists all of the files selected for copy.

04:47

It also shows the original and new name

04:49

for each selected file.

04:52

The folder panel lets you review the source and destination

04:55

folders for the Copy Design operation.

04:58

Now let's have a look at how the user interface can be

05:01

customized to suit your needs.

05:04

There are many ways to customize copy designs interface.

05:07

You can do the usual adding, removing,

05:10

and rearranging of columns.

05:12

You can toggle grid lines in binding on and off.

05:15

You can choose whether you want to display the fine panel.

05:19

And you can select to automatically resize

05:21

columns to fit within the available view area.

05:26

You can also simplify your Copy Design interface

05:28

by undocking panels, changing the docking location,

05:32

or turning off panels so that they do not display.

05:36

As per many customizations in the enrolled client,

05:39

the changes you do are stored in various XML files.

05:43

Just keep in mind with the best practice

05:45

is to always change the configurations in the user

05:47

interface and not manually edit those XML files.

05:52

Let me show you how this customization works.

05:55

As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways

05:58

to customize copy designs interface.

06:00

For the sake of this demo, I'll open Copy Design from the Vault

06:03

client by right clicking on inventor assembly

06:07

and selecting Copy Design from the menu which

06:09

is offered to me.

06:17

As you can see, the user interface opens,

06:20

and the assembly is loaded in the main grid

06:22

that I've set up to show the information as a preview.

06:25

Let's see what happens when I change it to list view

06:31

and then to folder view.

06:50

Now that I'm back in preview, I noticed

06:52

that the column showing me the version of the file is missing.

06:56

Let's add it.

07:17

One thing I didn't mention is that you

07:19

can select the alignment of the text for each column

07:21

individually.

07:31

Also about columns, they are automatically

07:34

sized by default. However, if you

07:36

want to control the width for which column,

07:38

this is how you turn the option off.

07:49

In the main grid itself, I can also

07:51

toggle the grid line and the bounding on and off.

07:54

I do however prefer them to be both on as it's easier

07:58

to read the screen.

08:12

As for the fine panel, this is how you display it.

08:22

And to close it, just click on the red X on the left of it.

08:27

Finally, you can select which panel you want displayed

08:30

and if you want them floating outside the user interface

08:32

or not.

09:11

The next topic is numbering schemes and actions.

09:15

Numbering schemes let you configure

09:17

how files, items, and change orders

09:19

are named when they are added to a Vault. As a reminder,

09:23

numbering schemes are created in the administration vault

09:26

setting section that you can access via the Vault client

09:30

with the appropriate permissions.

09:32

In Copy Design's user interface, you

09:34

can select numbering schemes to set

09:36

which name scheme are valid for use in your Copy Design

09:39

configuration.

09:42

There are four main types of actions--

09:44

copy, reuse, replace, and exclude.

09:48

When you assign an action to a file in the Copy Design grid,

09:51

the action displays in the action column.

09:56

Let's have a look at those four main action types.

09:59

The copy action is really self-explanatory.

10:02

It enables you to create a copy of a file or a branch,

10:06

either in the same location or in the location of your choice.

10:11

With the replace action, you can replace the selected file

10:14

with another file.

10:16

Then you can decide to reuse some

10:17

of the files of the assembly you've decided to copy.

10:20

And when you think about it, it makes perfect sense

10:23

that you might want to reuse parts of an assembly

10:26

when you do a copy.

10:27

Not everything needs to be redesigned.

10:29

And if a part is to be used in several products,

10:32

you don't want to have to check with every single instance

10:35

of that part that is stored in the Vault

10:37

is updated in the same way.

10:40

Finally, the exclude action can be used on parent documentation

10:44

files.

10:46

The next topic is creating, managing,

10:48

and applying rule sets.

10:51

A rule set is a collection of property rules

10:53

that determine file properties behavior during a copy

10:56

operation.

10:58

When you run a copy operation, rule sets

11:00

can be used to reset the category of the target

11:03

file, map file properties, and clear or reset some

11:08

or all the file properties.

11:12

If you want more details on the rule set interface,

11:15

you can refer to the online help where everything

11:18

is listed and explained.

11:22

The final section of this Copy Design path

11:24

is to go through the various processes I've described.

11:28

This walkthrough will show you how

11:30

to select a sub-assembly in the Vault client

11:32

and open Copy Design, configure the grid, column filtering,

11:37

resizing, et cetera, determine the files to be copied

11:40

and reused, define the rule set that maps the path

11:44

number to the file name and select the rule set

11:47

to be applied, rename some files using the search

11:50

and replace functionality, test the duplicate files warning

11:54

and run the copy, show a Copy Design of the previous version

11:59

and of derived parts.

12:02

So let's start this walkthrough by selecting

12:05

a sub-assembly in the Vault client

12:08

and opening the Copy Design.

12:10

We've been through the user interface customization process

12:13

earlier.

12:14

So we'll skip that part.

12:16

The first thing we're going to do in Copy Design

12:19

is to create a rule that maps the path number to the file

12:22

name.

12:28

So I click on new, give a name to the rule set, the rule,

12:51

select the criteria which determines to which files

12:56

the rule is going to apply.

12:57

In this case, we just want to apply to every single file.

13:01

So we're going to take filename and I would just

13:04

say is not empty.

13:07

So any fire that has a filename would

13:10

have the rule apply to it.

13:14

Then I would say select part number,

13:22

set value as, and filename.

13:27

This means that now the filename is mapped to the part number

13:31

property.

13:33

Click OK.

13:36

Apply and click OK again.

13:41

Now, as you can see in the action rules,

13:44

when you create a new rule, it's not shown by default.

13:48

So we want to display it and click OK.

13:52

The next step is to select the rule in the toolbar.

14:01

Then we're going to determine which parts are to be copied

14:04

and which are to be reused.

14:06

For this exercise, I'm first going to select the assembly

14:09

and copy the branch to a different folder.

14:20

Then I'm going to select a couple of parts

14:21

and decide to reuse them.

14:30

We are not going to use the Find and Replace functionality

14:32

to change Plate Gerundete Ecken to Plate Rounded Corners

14:38

as we use this will be working this copy prefer

14:41

English to German.

14:57

Click on replace all.

14:59

And as you can see, the text has been

15:01

changed to the new version.

15:03

Close this.

15:05

Finally, we're going to execute the copy.

15:26

As we can see in the old client, the relevant files

15:30

have been copied and renamed.

15:37

Once a copy is finished, green ticks

15:39

are displayed in the grid for the parts that have been copied

15:42

and the execute command is carried out.

15:46

If you make no changes in the grid,

15:48

you cannot execute the copy again.

15:50

However, if you were to make a change

15:52

and execute the copy again, such as, for example,

15:57

decide to reuse a part, it will detect duplicate files

16:02

and display an error message.

16:09

Finally, here are some best practices

16:12

for when you use Copy Design.

16:15

Unless attachments are set to remove in the Copy Design

16:18

process, they will get attached to the new parent file.

16:22

The exclude action can only be set on documentation files

16:25

when the link drawings with mother option

16:27

is unchecked in the Options menu.

16:30

The remove action can only be set on attachments.

16:34

Newly created files should be placed in the same folder

16:37

as a file it was copied from unless the destination path is

16:41

changed.

16:42

Add the original filename column to the main grid

16:45

to see the original filename.

16:48

PDF files created by the Job Processor

16:50

will not appear in the Copy Design dialog

16:52

and are ignored by the copy process.

16:56

Finally, if an Inventor fire has multiple ideological rules,

16:59

you can choose to remove either all the ideological rules

17:02

or none during Copy Design.

17:04

You cannot choose to remove specific rules.

17:09

Now for a few additional resources

17:11

where you can find information about Vault

17:13

in general and Copy Design.

17:16

You have the Vault online help where

17:19

you will find all information related to all Vault

17:22

functionalities, the Autodesk Developer Network

17:25

also known as ADN.

17:27

ADN was created for developers seeking proven tools

17:30

and technologies to extend Autodesk products

17:32

and technologies.

17:34

You have the Vault Customization Forum,

17:36

where you can share your knowledge

17:38

and ask questions about customization,

17:42

the Autodesk app store, a centralized storefront

17:44

for Autodesk customers to find apps

17:46

that enhance their productivity using their Autodesk products,

17:50

Under The Hood, Vault's official blog, the Autodesk University

17:56

site, which is a repository for all Autodesk University

17:59

sessions recordings.

18:01

There are over 150 Vault classes available,

18:05

the Vault customization blog called

18:08

It's All Just Ones and Zeros, and finally,

18:12

Vault's YouTube channel, The Vault Knows All,

18:15

Thank you all for listening, and I

18:17

hope you enjoyed this Vault Copy Design session.

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