First of all, what are Vault Attachments. Any Vault file can have another Vault file attached to it as long as it does not create a cyclic condition. In my example, the Boxing Materials for Shipment.docx is an attachment to the Inventor assembly Right Angle Engine Assembly.iam. One of the advantages to attachments is that they will always be available for Get / Checkout operations whenever the file they are attached to is edited.
Attachments are very easy to add. Simply select the Vault file you want to attach other files to, select the Attachment Icon on the Vault Toolbar to bring up the dialog box.
In the dialog box, select the Attach icon to browse the Vault for files you want to attach.
This process can be accomplished in Vault Basic but what I would like to call you attention to can only be accomplished in Vault Workgroup or Vault Professional which have the ability to manage file lifecycles. First let me set up the situation. I have an assembly that as been released for the first time. It has an attachment of the Word document which specifies the required shipping materials. The Word document is at Revision C.
Later on, the Word document is checked out of the Vault and modified. When it is checked back into the Vault, we see the revision is now D.
If we look back at the assembly file that was released, we see the released revision still references the revision C of the Word document. This illustrates a very important point of how the Vault will maintain related revision states of attachments relieving the user of the responsibility.
When attaching files, you have to ability to select the desired revision level so you can make sure the correct revision of a file is used.
This is just one more way the Vault can prevent mistakes from short memories.
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