Why Upgrade to Autodesk Vault Workgroup, Collaboration or Manufacturing?

As part of your Autodesk CAD software licenses, your company probably already owns and may well be one of the thousands of companies that has already implemented the standard version of Autodesk Vault.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, some of standard Vaults features and capabilities include:

Departmental-based work-in-process version management of files (Check in/check out)
Tight inside-application integration with Autodesk CAD and Microsoft Office products
Management of all types of files, not just CAD
Immediate where-used analysis on Autodesk Inventor parts and sub-assemblies
Excellent searching and retrieval of files based on document properties, titleblock information and even document contents

However, if your company is just using standard Vault, you are only scratching the surface of what you can do. Some major limitations of standard Autodesk Vault include the inability to:

Distinguish between work-in-process and released files
Ensure that all company procedures are properly followed for review and approval of changes
Control access to files and data based on folder location or file status (under change, released, etc.)
Provide any access to vaulted files and data to non-CAD users
Efficiently share files and work between multiple company locations

Upgrading to one of the Vault products described below will address these limitations and give your company the following additional capabilities and productivity improvements.

Autodesk Vault Workgroup

Vault Workgroup includes all of the capabilities of standard Vault plus these additional features and capabilities:

Control of Revisions and Revision History
With its check in/check out capabilities, standard Vault does only work-in-process or version management of files. With standard Vault, there is no easy way to distinguish between a version of a file that was simply a work-in-process check in and one that is a released version of a file that is ready for manufacturing, purchasing or customer/supplier distribution. This can easily lead to confusion and errors. Vault Workgroup adds full revision/release management to ensure that only the correct documents are available and distributed to others.

Configurable Document Lifecycle Workflows
Beyond check in, check out and release functions, Vault Workgroup also allows you to configure custom document lifecycle workflows that will incorporate all of the steps and personnel/departments that need to be involved in the creation, review and approval of changes to design and other data. This helps ensure that all your proper company procedures are followed to a T.

Utilities to Batch-Plot Design Data
Autodesk Vault Workgroup adds the capability to batch plot all of the files for a given job, Inventor assembly, plot list or a custom set of documents selected by a user. Vault Workgroups batch plotting also fully supports watermarking and stamping.

Automatic File Naming
Most companies employ some type of file naming convention based on document/drawing type, part type, sequence number, etc. In many cases, these file names are taken from and logged in a hard copy book or separate electronic database and then used to manually name CAD or other files. With Vault Workgroup, these conventions can be configured in the system so that file names/numbers are automatically applied to design and other files. This eliminates duplication of effort and duplication of data, saves time and prevents errors.

Highly Configurable Security and Access Control
Since it is really designed for smaller departmental workgroups, standard Vault provides very basic security controls. With Vault Workgroup, you can develop a very robust security model and secure your designs and other files by any combination of:

Individual user or group
Folder location (or even file by file)
File status (In-process, under review, released, obsolete, etc.)

This very flexible security allows you to control who, where and when users have access to data, so that the right users always get the right data at the right time.

Vault Access for Non-CAD Users
With standard Vault, a license of Autodesk CAD software (such as Inventor or AutoCAD) is required for Vault access. With Vault Workgroup, standalone client licenses can be purchased in order to allow non-CAD users full capabilities for creating and editing documents, participating in document lifecycle workflows, etc.

Autodesk Vault Collaboration

Vault Collaboration includes all of the capabilities of Vault Workgroup plus these additional features and capabilities:

Easy Read-Only Access
Most organizations have a significant number of users who just need simple, fast and inexpensive read-only access to files and data. With Vault Collaboration, unlimited licenses of Vaults web-based search-view-print licenses are included at no additional charge. This client allows users to browse the Vault folder structure, do property/content searches for files, view and print files, access where-used and assembly structure information and much more. In order to enhance security and prevent mistakes, users of this client can also be prevented from accessing all unreleased data.

Multi-Site Replication
In order to be cost competitive and efficient and also to take better advantage of global markets, more and more companies are needing to efficiently share design files and team members across multiple national and international locations. Due to their large size, most CAD files are very difficult to share between sites. With Vault Collaboration, Autodesk offers full multi-site replication of CAD and other files so that all user access of data is fast and local, any file changes are automatically distributed to other locations and file statuses (such as check out) are synchronized between sites in order to prevent errors.

Other outstanding features included with Vault Collaboration include Microsoft Sharepoint integration, enhanced reporting, integrated Windows authentication and enhanced backup tools for large databases.

Autodesk Vault Manufacturing

Vault Manufacturing includes all of the capabilities of Vault Collaboration plus these additional features and capabilities:

Automated Change Orders
Vault Manufacturing adds the capability to group one or more items/files together and route, track, audit, and monitor engineering change orders via a graphical workflow interface in a single integrated solution. Automated engineering change orders (ECOs) enable designers and personnel from other departments to approve or deny changes to affected items and associated files before they are released. Other features include automatic e-mail notifications, automatic posting of ECOs to users to-do lists, and configurable routing lists based on location, product line, priority of change, etc.

Bill of Material Management
Vault Manufacturing allows organizations to maintain complete control over the bill of materials (BOM) using a simple interface to manage materials, quantities, and other properties required for a design. Users can leverage their CAD design and then add, delete, or change BOM items and quantities in order to create and maintain an accurate and complete manufacturing and/or shipping BOM. With Vault Manufacturing, users can also:

Review and use historical information to make educated decisions about designs.
Enter date-specific filters enable users to view bills of materials (BOMs) for a specific date, current effective revision, or the default today view.
Quickly identify the difference between two BOMs using graphical cues to view the history of earlier revisions.

Business System Integration
With Vault Manufacturing, companies can integrate BOM and item information with existing business systems in order to prevent multiple re-entry of design/BOM data, eliminate sources of error and make design information available for downstream users. Integration provides connectivity to existing enterprise resource planning and product lifecycle management applications, including Microsoft Dynamics AX and GP, SAP R/3, Teamcenter, MatrixOne Software and many others.

Conclusion

Best of all, upgrading to Autodesk Vault Workgroup, Collaboration or Manufacturing is very easy for the following reasons:

All are easily installed as simple in-place upgrades to existing standard Vault databases so that all of the time and money you have spent building and populating your current Vault database will be leveraged.

All Vault products utilize the same user interface, making Vault Workgroup, Collaboration and Manufacturing easy transitions for your users and your organization.

While a few days of implementation services and training are required in most instances, all Vault products are designed to be configured and implemented with a minimum of outside assistance.

In summary, Autodesk Vault Workgroup, Collaboration and Manufacturing will allow your organization to quickly and easily overcome the limitations of standard Vault and also expand into other areas of productivity at a minimum of time and expense!

This page last edited on Monday, February 14, 2011