Managing Inventor Factory Assets in Vault – Part 2

By Kim Hyde

This Blog follows on from one I published last year regarding using Vault Professional to store and manage Inventor’s Factory Assets.  The step-by-step guide in this Blog focuses on locking down the Factory Asset `faf’ files which is a similar method for managing library data.  However, I would recommend first reading my introductory Blog on the subject via the following Cadline Community link:

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/115005565169-Managing-Inventor-Factory-Assets-in-Vault

I would also recommend reading Brian Schanen’s Blog from 2010 about managing Inventor’s Content Centre file in Vault … hard to believe this was 8 years ago! … Tempus Fugit!! (see `Under-the-Hood’ link below):

http://underthehood-autodesk.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/categorizing-inventor-content-center-files-with-autodesk-vault.html

Step 1

Create a new Vault Lifecycle with a suitable name, I copied the out-of-the-box `Simple’ Lifecycle and then made the Released state the default; by doing this you will be controlling the faf data and automatically locking a category of files when first checked into Vault.  The image of my example uses the `Everyone’ group for securities, but you can set specifics for your own business needs.

Step 2

Create a new Vault File Category using your newly created Lifecycle and setting the Revision scheme used as `None’ (it is not necessary to have revision controls in this instance).

Also remember to assign any properties you wish to associate with the Factory Asset Category, I recommend using Vault’s standard Factory Asset properties, but you may wish to include some custom properties of your own.  My example here uses a couple of the 42 `COBie’ custom properties I have available:

Step 3 

Lastly, create a Rule where the file extension is faf, this will automatically categorise the Factory Asset files as they are checked into Vault and lock them as a Released state.

Happy Vaulting!