Sovelia Vault is an Autodesk Vault Add-in built to enhance Vault workflows and processes, you can automate and control repetitive design tasks.
PDFs and
Autodesk Vault have always gone hand in hand, but what if you could produce PDFs
with better quality, reliability, flexibility, maintainability and secondary
documents that do more?
Autodesk Vault can produce PDF files from
drawings, Inventor and AutoCAD drawings, and so can Sovelia Vault. This blog focuses
on the benefits of using Sovelia
Vault as an Autodesk Vault Add-in.
Triggering the PDF creation
Autodesk Vault and Sovelia Vault can use
the job processor, but only Sovelia Vault allows you to run it directly on the
client. This allows flexibility in how and when you create a PDF i.e., not
having a job server set up, or if you don't want to rely on a job processor to
receive instructions and hope it succeeds. Running it on clients provides
direct feedback.
Autodesk provides one configuration for
PDFs regardless of transition or other circumstances. Sovelia Vault allows
multiple different PDF configurations on different files, projects etc. Any
state transition on check-in. Before a state transition is completed or after,
both configurations can create PDFs directly at a user's request and during
state change. Vault, however, limits the options to only run
when transitioning to a released state.
While Autodesk Vault allows you to create
PDFs on a specific Lifecycle transition that leads to a Released state. It
doesn't provide many more options to expand or limit that behaviour. As
described above, Sovelia Vault allows creation on a wider scale, but it can
also limit whether a PDF is to be created - through conditions on Vault
Properties or computed values. Sovelia Vault provides many possibilities to get
the exact behaviour you need.
PDF options
Sovelia Vault gives more options compared
to working only with Autodesk Vault; All sheets, the First sheet only,
Specific sheet (by name). Another Sovelia Vault feature is the Sheet
condition, where you can specify a sheet name that needs to exist on the
drawing for the plot to execute.
File target destination
Both systems can set lifecycle state and
revision to the target file (the PDF), but Sovelia Vault allows you to
configure revision and lifecycle state separately.
Setting the PDF as an attachment is
crucial, but to be able to add it as hidden is a real benefit that Sovelia
Vault has. There are great performance benefits to hiding PDF attachments for
drawings in Vault. With the "Attachment tab" in Sovelia Vault, all
attachments, hidden or visible, are available to the user regardless of
visibility. Some companies can't use PDF files in Vault without this feature.
Publishing to disk or network location
really sets Autodesk Vault and Sovelia Vault apart.
Autodesk provides rudimentary settings, but
Sovelia Vault allows you to export files to the desired location and folder
structure. For example, to structure PDFs according to project number, place
the documents in a user's "Documents" folder or handle older versions
of the published PDF files.
Advanced options
PDF files should represent the state of the
drawing at the exact moment it was released. If a model is updated after the
drawing is released, running a published on that drawing (and using Inventor to
publish it) will show the updated model. Some companies only control the
drawing, this is even more important: the revision of the drawing requires the
model to be frozen in time. "Defer updates" does this. However,
signatures need to be updated. This is allowed with the "Defer
Updates" option active. Running on Inventor or Inventor server,
"Defer updates=True" is the only alternative to achieving the desired
result: showing the model in its exact state but updating the signature and
date on the title block.
Being able to choose the download
folder/temp folder can be advantageous. The Workspace of a user usually
contains relevant files, so performance is greatly improved.
The possibility to save and check in the
source document makes it possible to have the drawing in its correct form. If a
signature is added and mapped to IProperties, those updates will be visible on
the PDF (see above), but if you open that file in Inventor View, the old
values, and revision numbers are still like they were when the file was last
checked in with Inventor.
Advanced file naming
Sovelia Vault has a very powerful file
naming configurator. Either let the PDF get the same name as the source file or
specify exactly what it should be by using the configurator; file properties
(eg. filename, created date), Vault properties, Sheet name and/or number, as well
as fixed values. It's easy to do and review or change later.
Autodesk lets you configure naming by going
into the Job server, finding the JobProcessor.exe.config file and adding values
that make sense.
Properties
Sovelia Vault lets you choose exactly which
properties should be inherited or added to the PDF file in Vault. Getting the
correct metadata on the PDF is crucial to search for PDFs of the drawings.
Summary
Autodesk Vault can produce PDFs, and so can
Sovelia Vault. If you only have basic requirements, then Autodesk does the job.
If you have higher demands on quality, reliability, flexibility,
maintainability, and secondary documents, adding Sovelia Vault to your workflow
is the right choice.
To learn more about Sovelia Vault-Autodesk
Vault Addin and how you can automate routines and extend Autodesk Vault’s
functionalities please visit our website.
For more information, please contact Symetri:
0345 370 1444 or info@symetri.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment