Minimizing the size of your Autodesk Vault database

One of the major issues Hagerman & Company and our customers face when implementing Autodesk Vault is the question of which database option to use with the software. Two database options are available for use with Autodesk Vault: Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft MSDE database engine.

SQL Server is Microsoft’s flagship database product. As such, it allows for virtually an unlimited number of users and database capacity. However, in order to implement Autodesk Vault with Microsoft SQL Server, the SQL Server licenses must be purchased at an additional cost from Microsoft, and can involve additional database administration and management on an ongoing basis.

The MSDE engine allows for up to (10) concurrent database “transactions” which will easily support (25-35) Autodesk Vault users. The major limitation of MSDE with regard to Vault is that MSDE databases are limited to 2GB in size. Our experience has been that under a “default” configuration, this typically limits Vault’s capacity to approximately (20,000) documents including old revisions. For many users, this is a serious limitation and forces them to instead have to select the SQL version, despite its higher cost and more complex implementation.

The good news
There is a way to expand the number of documents that can be managed by an MSDE database by four to five times. This can be done by turning off the saving of bitmaps or thumbnails in the database. If used, these small thumbnail images are actually stored inside the MSDE database and typically eat up 75 to 80 percent of its storage space. By turning off the bitmaps, it’s estimated that a typical MSDE database can manage approximately (80,000) documents.

For most users, these bitmaps are not that valuable. They are so small that it’s often difficult to differentiate between model or drawing files by looking at them. In addition, one cannot zoom or pan-in on the bitmap images to get a beter view. In Vault, even without bitmaps, a user can always simply click the View tab in Vault Explorer for a fast, detailed look at any file before opening it in AutoCAD or Inventor.

If you are preparing to implement Autodesk Vault, Hagerman & Company associates can help you configure Vault so these bitmaps do not occupy valuable space in your MSDE database. If you have already implemented Vault and are worried about hitting the 2GB limit because of these bitmaps, we can help you re-configure Autodesk Vault to “shrink” your existing database and create space to store many more files.

To ensure that the steps outlined above are performed properly, contact a Hagerman & Company associate. Our experts can talk you through these steps to improve your database storage, and make sure that all of your data is properly backed up before any changes are made.
 

This page last edited on Tuesday, September 19, 2006