The Autodesk Vault 2014 release focuses on providing an improved end user experience through server side and job processor enhancements as well as changes to the add-in and client functionality to address day-to-day user pain points.
Changes to the Inventor Vault file status reporting simplifies user interaction with Vault and enables better decision-making while changes to the revision table integration vastly improve functionality and enable wider adoption across disciplines.
Changes to the Get/Checkout dialog have simplified the user interaction and vastly improved download performance. Support for 64 bit client likewise creates a better user experience.
Finally a great deal of effort has gone into overall product stability from replication and purge support to an overhaul of Job Processor designed to greatly enhance the reliability and performance of this component.
The Vault Developer Framework (VDF) delivers extensible, light-weight data management components that allow new add-ins and clients to be created quickly and to enable existing add-ins to benefit from continued feature development and enhancements.
Improved UsabilityChange State on Locally Modified File
The Change State command now permits change of state on locally modified files from within the CAD application resolving workflow impasses from previous releases.
Place from Vault workflow has also been completed with the addition of Place iFeature from Vault, providing centrally managed access to your company's iFeature library.
Open from Vault Explorer Behaviors
In an effort to consolidate user workflows and improve usability, the Open command in Vault Explorer has been modified to align with the CAD integrations.
Instead of the previous behavior of gathering file dependencies based on file revision, the Open command in Vault explorer retrieves the latest file versions, meaning that the user will see the same default file results whether opening from Vault Explorer or CAD.
If the legacy behavior is preferred the administrator can re-enable this via configuration file.
Based on user feedback a number of enhancements have been made to the Revision Table greatly improving its flexibility and usability across design disciplines.
Administrator can now control the file information displayed in the revision table rows including:
In addition to selecting information to display users can also select which revision types should appear in the table, whether that is:
Users are also able to reset the table rows on change to the revision scheme so the final revision displays only the production revision.
The Inventor Vault browser now exposes additional managed information to easily recognize your design data within Vault browser.
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Vault Client Preview Improvements
In an effort to improve previewing interaction and performance a new carousel preview interface allows users to cycle through thumbnails of the document history without loading the dwf and then load the higher quality dwf preview for their selection.
In terms of new integrations Vault now offers a Plant 3D Vault Extension which manages the Plant project database, providing an integrated end user experience.
The Revit integration has been improved to offer direct communication between the Revit server and Vault Server, family search capabilities, and enhanced linking functionality.
Users are now able to display multiple family details within the load family dialog grid, filter by family types, and conduct federated searches. Linking from Vault now supports additional file types.
Performance2014 offers increase efficiency with improvement to the most used workflows, in this case a redesign of the Get/Check Out dialog to make the most commonly used settings easily accessible and improving performance through collapsible display and underlying download architecture.
The new 2014 Vault client is now 64 bit enabled meaning faster client performance on resource heavy tasks such as copy design and a reduction in "out of memory" issues.
The Autodesk Bulk Loading tool has been updated to support additional object types to be able to transit legacy PDM data to Vault Product family.
The utility now supports Project Lifecycle and Custom Objects.
StabilitySupporting the needs of enterprise automations the job processor has been re-configured to better manage memory and application churn. Logging has also been improved to better capture and report issues.
The system can now be configured to control the frequency the job processor starts and closes CAD application (currently done for each operation), greatly improving performance and stability.
The system can now restart the Job executor automatically and has additional logging to assist administrators with monitoring.
Reset to Queue Button on Toolbar
Enhanced Stability and Performance of Common Job Handlers
Job execution performance is improved due to the re-use of the CAD libraries across jobs and the active monitoring of timeouts.
Individual jobs are now processed by Connectivity.JobProcessor.Delegate.Host.exe–a separate application. The jobs are still controlled by JobProcessor.exe.
Development and Testing Enhancements
JobProcessor.exe -u Administrator -p -s MyVaultServer
JobProcessor.exe -w -s MyVaultServer
Lessons learned from the current implementation of replication technology have resulted in a number of server side improvements to optimize performance in Vault 2014.
The Autodesk Vault product family is updating support to be compatible with the current released technology:
ExtensibilityThe VDF is a high-level framework on top of the existing API that provides:
Refer to the VDF Feature Set for more details about the features available.
Visit the Autodesk Vault Idea ExchangeIt's our mission to make Autodesk Vault the world's best Data Management solution. But we can't do it without you. Do you have a great idea for a new feature or enhancement you'd like to see in Autodesk Vault? Share your wish list directly with the Autodesk Vault Development Team, and let us turn your ideas into reality.
The Autodesk Idea Exchange is a forum dedicated to improving Autodesk Vault software by sharing product improvement ideas directly with the developers. The Vault Team is listening. If you've got a great idea, we'll consider it for inclusion in our development plan. Post your ideas, see what your peers are thinking, and give kudos to the ideas you like the best. The more kudos your idea receives, the better the chance of it making it into the product. At the Idea Exchange, you can even track the status of ideas as they grow from initial concept to ultimate release!
Share you ideas now at theAutodesk Vault Idea Exchange.
