Topic: Autodesk Vault

[ELOQUINTET]

I was wondering if anyone here has ever used or is using Vault. I work with Autocad exclusively but our Engineering Department use Inventor and we will be sharing a Server soon so they are thinking of having us use Vault as well. I know it is primarily used for Inventor but what would be the benefit of using it for Autocad. Currently we have an Access database setup and a VBA program which extracts the job info from Access and inserts it into the titleblock. We also use the database to search for similar jobs we have already done. Anybody know anything about this?

[LE]

I frequent the cadmanagers ng at adesk and noticed this thread the other day:

http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?threadID=490099

It may have some useful reading....

[ELOQUINTET]

This seems to be like most posts I have read about Vault LE in that it's all about 3D. Should we even bother using Vault for 2d work. On top of that our Drafting Department consists of about 10 people and I don't see it growing much larger than that in the near future. I haven't used it but don't really see how it would benefit us 2D guys.

[pmvliet]

I believe the one feature that it has that would work for your needs would be it's drawing history.
It will be able to recall a drawing from a specific revision and all files associated will be of that same time.
So your references and other things will be accurate as well.

Now, if you find the feauture important enough to implement that is another story.

It is much like a file management system, similar to Projectwise if you know anything about Projectwise.

As of Last years AU, Vault could not handle most of the new features in Base AutoCad such as sheet sets and the other kewl linking abilities now being offered in AutoCad.

Pieter

[ELOQUINTET]

hmmm i'll have to think about that. we have many revisions but usually just create a revision folder and copy the drawings into it when we start it. we use limited external but do use some. That's really the only thing I saw that was useful is that everytime you check the drawing out it creates a new drawing. I can foresee people not understanding it and checking in and out their drawings everyday and tons accumulating or people forgetting to check them in when the job is completed. Right now each draftsman is working and keeping their drawings on their hard drive so I think the checking in and out will be forgotten or misunderstood by most here. I think we should just move all file onto the server and be done with it. We have thought about using Sheet sets in a limited way also but currently are not.