Vault Professional provides control over how designs and design changes are managed and released. You can create change orders
to describe changes to a design as well as manage the progression of that change order as it is reviewed, approved, or rejected.
Change orders provide a historical record of why, how, and when changes were made.
Before you begin:
- You must have Administrator or Change Order Editor permissions to create or participate in a change order. Ensure the administrator
has defined users with appropriate change order permissions in the Administration dialog box.
- Routing lists and numbering schemes are defined in the Administration dialog box on the Change Order tab. When you create
a change order, you select from predefined routing lists and change order numbering schemes. Ensure the administrator has
defined the appropriate change order numbering schemes.
Note The routing list may be modified after creating the change order.
About the Change Order Dialog
The Change Order dialog box has six tabs:
- General: Contains the change order attributes.
- Records: Displays the list of files and items associated with the change order. The record details for each file or item include
a title, description, revision, and the state.
- Comments: Summarizes the decisions for the change order in the form of comments, attachments, and markups. You can also customize
email notifications.
- Files: Lists all files and associated items for the change order. Attachments and markups are also listed.
- Routing: Lists the participants involved with the current change order.
- Status: Contains a graphical representation of the current status of the change order.
Use the toolbar to interact with the change order:
- Save: Saves the change order with any changes that have been made.
- Update: Updates the record selected in the Records tab.
- Refresh: Refreshes the view.
The Change Order toolbar indicates what activities can be performed depending on:
- The current state of the change order
- The role of the participant
Rules for Using Change Orders with Files
As a best practice, it is recommended you add all children to a change order with an assembly. Reviewers and approvers will
be aware of all affected files.
In general, it is useful to add all files affected by a design change to the change order. For example, in Autodesk Inventor,
changing a part also changes the parent assembly. It is recommended you add all previously unreleased children to a change
order with its parent assembly since they are automatically released when the assembly is released. Reviewers and approvers
will be aware of all files that are released when a change order is approved.
General Rules
- Only users with Administrator or Change Order Editor security permissions can affect change orders.
- A file can only be associated with one active change order at a time. Once a change order has been closed or cancelled, the
file can be associated with a new or a currently active change order.
- Change orders do not drive file state changes. However, a change order will prevent certain lifecycle state changes for the
file depending on the change order's state and if linked to change order is added as a criteria in the file's lifecycle transition.
Rules for Closing a Change Order
- The change order must be in the Approved state.
- All files associated with the change order are released. The effective dates are set and edited using the Set Effectivity
dialog box.
Rules for Releasing Files with Relationships
- Releasing and setting the effectivity of an assembly on a change order that has unreleased children (not on a change order),
releases and sets the effectivity of the children.
- If a previously unreleased child is on another change order, the change order containing the parent file cannot be closed
until the change order associated with the child file is either closed or cancelled.
Rules for Using Change Orders with Items
As a best practice, it is recommended you add all children to a change order with an assembly. Reviewers and approvers will
be aware of all affected items.
In general, it is useful to add all items affected by a design change to the change order. For example, in Autodesk Inventor,
changing a part also changes the parent assembly. It is recommended you add all previously unreleased children to a change
order with its parent assembly since they are automatically released when the assembly is released. Reviewers and approvers
will be aware of all items that are released when a change order is approved.
General Rules
- Only users with Administrator or Change Order Editor security permissions can affect change orders.
- An item can only be associated with one active change order at a time. Once a change order has been closed or cancelled, the
item can be associated with a new or a currently active change order.
- The Change Order Administrator can make the item editable in all states except Canceled and Closed. The Responsible Engineer
can make an item editable in the Work State, changing the lifecycle state. See "Items and lifecycle state rules" for more
detail. Right-click on an item and then select Change State to chose from a list of lifecycle states.
- An Item Editor Level 2 can edit an item associated with a change order when it is in the Work in Progress state except for
the following:
- Change State
- Change Effectivity
- New Change Order
Rules for Using Change Orders with Items and Lifecycle States
- If a released item is added to a change order and the Change Order Administrator changes the state of the item to Work in
Progress, the item changes to Work in Progress and a new revision is created according to the Bump revision action specified
in the Lifecycles rules dialog box. If the Bump revision action is set to None, a new revision is not created.
- The state of an item does not change when it is attached to a change order.
After a new revision is created, the Change Order Administrator can change the lifecycle state of the item making the item
editable or non-editable by using the Change State command available from the context menu in the Change Order dialog box
in the Item tab. The context menu displays the available lifecycle states.
Rules for Closing a Change Order
- The change order must be in the Approved state.
- All items associated with the change order are released. The effective dates are set and edited using the Set Effectivity
dialog box.
Rules for Releasing Items with Relationships
- Releasing and setting the effectivity of an assembly on a change order that has unreleased children (not on a change order),
releases and sets the effectivity of the children.
- If a previously unreleased child is on another change order, the change order containing the parent item cannot be closed
until the change order associated with the child item is either closed or cancelled.
