‘Open from Vault’ Dialog Searches In Inventor

by Chris Turner

The ‘Open from Vault’ dialog box which gets installed with the Vault Inventor Add-in, has some really great tools to use. I often see people just using this to browse folders and select/open files, but this dialog actually does a lot more for you!

  

For starters, change how the files are presented to you and displayed. From Detail/List View…

To even icons.

Why not customise the information that is displayed in the Detail View? The default display is great which even has a thumbnail, but why not add even more useful information that you may need in the detailed file list. By right clicking on any column heading, select ‘Choose Columns’.

Simply Drag and Drop the relevant properties you want into the header.

Importantly, on the left of the dialog box, you can do your normal ‘Searching’ here and type in any search criteria as needed. Just as you would in the Vault Client application, you type in the ‘tokens’ to find the right file properties. Always remember you are searching from top down! The top right icon (binoculars) also lets you perform more Advanced Searches.

Save the Search under a logical name, so you can always come back to it.

One of my favourite searches is knowing which files I have checked out. I can always get this information using a single click.

Shortcuts that you have created with Vault can also be listed. I often use Shortcuts and Group them. That way I can use them as almost like my ‘TO DO’ list.

The Vault Inventor Add-in really offers some quick tools to do all of the above. I really recommend to all the people I speak to and train on Vault to make use of these to their full extent. So much time can be wasted looking for things! By spending a few minutes to organise yourself using these tools, you certainly can boost your productivity and get to files and information very quickly. Even with just a single click.