Vault Batch Plotting all Drawings for an Assembly

I published an article the other day on how to batch plot all the drawings related to an assembly.  A short time later a reader pointed out to me that there was a much easier method than the one I suggested.  I am editing my article to reflect his method.  This method also only applies to Vault Workgroup and Vault Professional since they are the only Vault packages that contain the batch plotting utility.  I left the old article in this post just for the record, it is marked as such.

Without any files selected in the main panel, select the batch plotting icon or the command from the File menu.

Select the "Add" dropdown menu and select "Add Related File Sheets". 

Browse in to the assembly file you want plot the related drawing files.  Select the assembly and press "Open" to continue.  The Vault will be searched and all the drawing files will be placed in the plot manager dialog.

Select the entries, configure the plotting device and settings and you are done.  This is by far a much better method that my earlier article outlined.  I wish to thank Brendan Henderson for writing me and suggesting this method.

 

Original Article

The ability to select an Inventor assembly in the Vault and then select the "Uses" tab on the Preview panel creates a list of all the sub-assemblies and parts used.  Most Vault users are disappointed it will not also show all the related IDWs or DWGs.  If the Vault will not provide this functionality, then it is safe to say it will not allow you to find all the drawings related to a selected assembly and batch plot them.  This article will outline the process to do just this operation.  It is not real pretty but it gets the job done and once you do it a couple of times, it is pretty fast.  The full process of batch plotting process in unavailable in Vault Basic but the sorting of all the drawings related to an assembly is.

The first step is to create a scratch folder in the Vault.  Name it something that reminds you of the folder's purpose.  I created one called "DWF Plotting Folder".  Use the "Go to Working Folder" command to create the same folder in your local workspace.

  
Next, select the assembly file you wish to find all the related drawing files.  Select "Pack and Go" from the File menu.

Configure Pack and Go according to the screen shot below.  This will find all the DWF or DWFx files for the assembly, sub-assemblies and drawings of the selected assembly.  I am assuming at this point that your Vault is using visualization files and all are present and available. 

Select "OK" to continue and then select the temporary plotting folder created earlier in your local workspace to receive the files.  You probably will receive a warning about the visualization files being out of date, select "Yes" to continue.  You will now have all the DWF files in the local workspace folder.  Now return to the Vault Client and right click on your plotting folder in the navigation panel and select "Add Files". 

You will want to exclude the old versions folder and the Inventor IPJ file before you place the files in the Vault.  Select "OK" to finish.

In the Vault select the "Find" command.  You are going to create a saved search that will sort out all of the DWFs except the drawing files.  Configure the search as shown below making sure to replace my search folder with yours.  If you use DWG for your Inventor drawings, substitute dwg for idw in the search string.  Save the search so you can use it over and over.

  After you execute the search, all the files in your temporary plotting folder will be the drawing files ready to be batch plotted.  Select all of the files and select the batch plotting icon to begin. 

 
Since batch plotting is not in Vault Basic, you will have to use some other plotting method but at least you have all the drawing files from your assembly in one place.  I batch plotted my drawings to PDF files using the Vault batch plotting routine and Adobe.

Last, delete all files in your plotting folder both in the Vault and in your Vault workspace so you are ready to go with the next assembly.  This process seems long but it is has one big advantage, it will find all assembly drawings not matter where they are in the Vault and allow you to print them as a group.

 

Comments

[BRENDAN HENDERSON]

John, there is an easier method in any flavour above Vault Basic.

With no model/drawing file selected (I select a folder) start the Vault Plot function, then Add. Browse to the assy file you want to plot and select that. This will grab all of the asssociated files and print them and gives control of many file and print aspects. This saves a lot of time and mucking around.

[Radu Stancescu]

Very good/smart tip, will be using it.
Thank you.