Sovelia Vault Property Compliance versus Autodesk Vault Peer Review

Autodesk Vault can manage, track, and organise design and engineering data throughout its lifecycle as a product data management (PDM) tool. It includes features for document management, version control, and collaboration.

Vault 2024 Professional has added new capabilities for Peer Review. Peer review refers to having colleagues or team members review and provide feedback on design files or documents stored within the Vault. This product data management tool has collaborative quality control measures where individuals within the organisation can examine, evaluate, and comment on the content before it moves forward in the workflow or is released for production.

Sovelia Vault, specifically designed as an automation platform for Autodesk Vault, offers additional features and functionality that enhance the capabilities of Autodesk Vault. These enhancements provide greater flexibility, control, and customisation options for peer review and property compliance, including implementing an accurate "4-eye check." This ensures that at least two individuals review a document or design file before proceeding to the next stage or being released.

The table below compares the functionality between Vault and Sovelia Vault:

Functionality	Autodesk Vault	Sovelia Vault
When applied	On lifecycle transition before any other actions	Configurable when in order of actions transaction check applied
Where applied	Client Only	Client or job processor
Rules for files applied to	Defined per transition state individually	Defined in action, which can be applied to multiple different transition states in action sets.
Rule Change	It must be applied to every transaction where the rule is applied	A single change in action
Properties compared	A user attempting state change with a Version Created By the User	ANY  property with the current user, computed values, any vault properties or fixed text.

While Autodesk Vault focuses on individual transition states and requires changes to be applied to every transaction, Sovelia Vault provides more flexibility with actions, allowing rules to be applied to multiple states in action sets with a single change. Moreover, Sovelia Vault offers greater flexibility in comparing properties, enabling comparisons with various values and properties beyond just the versions created by the user.

The standard Vault peer review has limitations, as it can be influenced by actions performed by the job processor, which may update the file version. For example, if a revision block update or state change is applied to the title block, the last user shown in the review may be the job processor user instead of the user who initiated the state change.

Additionally, achieving an accurate "4-eye check" in a multi-review process is not feasible with the standard Vault peer review functionality. While users may be restricted from performing the initial check state change, they may not be prevented from performing subsequent approval state changes.

In summary, Sovelia Vault expands upon the core product data management features of Autodesk Vault and offers advanced automation, customisation, and flexibility for property compliance and peer review.

If you require extensive customisation, automation, and additional capabilities, choosing Sovelia Vault alongside Autodesk Vault can provide significant benefits.

For more information about Sovelia Vault, visit the official website at https://www.symetri.co.uk/products/sovelia-vault/

Alternatively, contact us via email or telephone:

info@symetri.co.uk

0345 370 1444

Sovelia Vault PDF, STP, DXF generation versus Vault PDF, STEP, DXF generation

Autodesk Vault can manage, track, and organise design and engineering data throughout its lifecycle as a data management tool. It includes features for document management, version control, and collaboration.

You can generate PDF files within Autodesk Vault to capture and share design documentation.

Vault 2024 Professional has added new capabilities. STEP files can be generated to exchange 3D models with other software or systems that support the format. DXF files can also be created to share drawings in a widely compatible format.

Sovelia Vault is specifically designed as an automation platform for Autodesk Vault. It offers additional features and functionality tailored to enhance Autodesk Vault's capabilities. These features provide enhanced flexibility, control, and customisation options for secondary file format generation.

So, what are the differences between Vault and Sovelia Vault, and why would you want to use Sovelia Vault instead? The table below compares functionality:

Functionality	Autodesk Vault	Sovelia Vault
PDF Generation	Drawings only	Drawings and 3D models. Word and Excel files
STP Generation	Yes	Yes
DXF Generation	Yes	Yes
SAT, IGES, DWG, BMP	No	Yes
Manual Generation	Admin Option On or Off option for each type	Options for manual generation are fully configurable based on user, file type, and property criteria separate for each type of file. Multiple configurations are possible for different requirements of the same file type. Options to remove previous versions.
Automatic Generation	On lifecycle state change. Applies to all files on the file lifecycle state change.	Fully configurable on Add, Check-in, and File and item State change. Different criteria can be applied to control precisely when and what is generated based on location, properties, user, and category.
Run Location	Job Processor Only with fixed queue priority	On-client or Job Processor with configurable queue priority
Destination Location	Vault or external Same as the source file structure or a single folder	Vault and/or external Same as the source or any folder configuration using the folder path tool based on properties and/or calculated and fixed values.
Naming	The limited option is adjustable in the server .config file—same naming configuration for all files.	Fully configurable based on any property or fixed information. Naming is flexible and can be fully and separately controlled. For example, the file generated to vault can have a different name than a file generated to an external folder, including the revision in the external file name.
Property Copy	Can sync lifecycle state and revision to the vault properties of the generated file. The single option applies to all generated files of that type.	Any properties from the source file can be synchronised to the generated vault file. Fully and selectively configurable.
Format Options	Admin configuration option applies to all.	Any number of file-specific configurations can be configured and applied according to selected criteria.
PDF Watermarking	No	Configurable options based on any property information.
PDF Sheet Options	All or All, including excluded from print	Fully configurable as to First, All or Specific Sheet

 

In summary, Sovelia Vault builds upon the core functionality of Autodesk Vault and provides advanced automation, customisation, and flexibility for secondary file format generation. If you require extensive customisation, automation, and additional file format generation capabilities, Sovelia Vault can be a beneficial choice over Autodesk Vault alone.

Secondary file generation is just one of many automation tools available within Sovelia Vault.

For more information about Sovelia Vault, visit our website   https://www.symetri.co.uk/products/sovelia-vault/

Alternatively, contact us via email or telephone:

info@symetri.co.uk

0345 370 1444

Set and Control Watermarking in Vault Based on the Current State of the File

Watermarking can signify whether the document is a preliminary version, not ready for production or just a document for pre-reviewing a design. A watermark will most likely eliminate the risk that production is done from non-released documents. 

Using native Vault functionality, it is possible to add watermarking to DWF files, but only when printing from Vault. However, many of our clients said that they required the same feature based on document level control. With the latest 2022.2 and 2023 releases of the Autodesk Vault Add In, Sovelia Vault, we now have built-in watermarking for 2D PDFs, dwfs and dwfx files. 

It has become evident that there were two main scenarios in that customers would use watermarking:

• When generating a PDF to a network / other business system
• When viewing data in the vault via mobile and thin clients.

In the first scenario, a PDF may be generated out of vault for use for the shop floor, customer or supplier checks.  These PDFs are not thoroughly checked, approved and released at this point and should not be used for manufacturing. Customers have requested watermarking to make clear the state of this information. 

In the second scenario, users may be viewing and downloading data directly from these clients; our customers wanted to ensure that downloaded PDFs were not released and were watermarked to give an element of control. In both cases, watermarking was introduced to allow users greater visibility of the current data state when using these files outside of the Vault system.

Set and control watermarking based on the current state of the file

Sovelia Vault allows administrators to set watermarking based on the current state of the file with control over the text, orientation, location, and colour of the watermark.  Text can be set based on built-up expressions of static text and document properties, allowing administrators to control displayed information.  In addition, Sovelia Vault allows control to enable watermarking on “all states”, a “named state,” or “all states except” conditions, allowing all states to generate watermarking except for a released state as required by many companies.

This new feature was critical to successfully expanding the use of Vault to staff outside of the design team within companies that tested this functionality—driving clearer information to those users and the wider business.

To find out more about the Autodesk Vault Add In, Sovelia Vault, visitor our website: https://www.symetri.co.uk/products/sovelia-vault

Or what our video below:

 Video: How to Watermark your designs with the help of the Autodesk Vault Add In, Sovelia Vault?