From the way up north comes an AE with superior Autodesk Data Management skills. Michael Thomas from our Saskatoon, Saskatchewan office in Canada created two great white papers on Vault topics for us this week. Mike is PSE and ATC certified and was one of the first to complete IMAGINiT's TakeAIM certification. With over 10 years of Autodesk software experience and his strong communication skills, he is highly regarded within the industry.
This first one is a great white paper for those wishing to get the most data and productivity out of their Vaulted files even if they are Word, Excel or PDFs.
Autodesk Vault Content Searches and iFilters - WhitePaper White paper (Use "Save Link As" if link doesn't load correctly in your browser)
Excerpt: So you have implemented Autodesk Vault (or Autodesk Productstream) and are in the process of adding files to your Vault. You know that when files are placed into the Vault, properties of these documents become search able. The Autodesk website describes it this way "Quickly search through design and related information to find and reuse existing design information. Productstream enables advanced searching by automatically extracting and indexing the complete contents of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and AutoCAD files."
The Autodesk Data Management solutions provide the ability to vault ANY file and organize your data to suit your design processes. The vaulting process automatically extracts document properties (such as title, author, descriptions & material) and can index file contents (i.e. text) contained within the document. Using this extracted data you can search any available property (using either basic or advanced searches) improving your ability to find valuable design data, making it easier to re?use and avoiding re-doing work.
This second one is a great white paper for new user of data management programs to understand the literal differences in what is meant by a Version and a Revision, what should constitute both, and how Autodesk Data Management can help.
Version vs Revision - WhitePaper White paper (Use "Save Link As" if link doesn't load correctly in your browser)
Excerpt: When creating data there are times when you need to maintain a history of the document to see what has changed over the evolution of the document and why it was changed. Maintaining the history of the document provides the ability to go back to a previous copy when something was changed inadvertently or the change did not make improvements compared to how it was previously. In some instances you may want to go back to a previous copy to be able to work on the exact version that was provided to a customer or vendor.
At the simplest level you could keep multiple copies of a document, labeled in a fashion to identify versions and / or revisions. The file would be labeled with the appropriate version or revision #. The issue with using multiple copies of a document is that it requires self-discipline to properly maintain the copies, which could lead to mistakes.
Until next time, may your iFilter search in the right direction!
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