By Kim Hyde
Managing and controlling the release of manufactured parts is at the core of the functionality of both Autodesk Vault Workgroup and Vault Professional. The use of rules to automatically categorize data types can help really speed up workflows, a good example of this is when controlling Content Centre parts. CC parts can be automatically categorized to a Category and Lifecycle set to be locked in a Released state on check-in, however when it comes to Content Centre parts used within an Inventor design using Frame Generator, it would be a hindrance to have the associated parts locked down to a Released state; for a fluid design process the frame members would need to remain in a Work-in-Progress state to allow editing.
To learn how to separate Frame Member parts as a different Category and Lifecycle …. Read on!
Step -1
Perhaps the first step is to read Brian Schanen’s (one of Autodesk’s Vault Gurus) well documented tutorials on how to setup a property and a Vault Rule to Categorize Content Centre parts. Please refer to the following link and videos:
Step -2
The next step is to copy the existing Content Centre Lifecycle to a suitable name and modify the default Lifecycle to be the Work In Progress state. (Example below showing Lifecycle `CC Parts’ copied to `Frame CC Parts’ with modified default state):
Step -3
Create a Vault Category using the new Lifecycle using a suitable name:
Step -4
Lastly, setup a Rule using the property `G_L’ set to `is not empty, condition. Use Up arrow (highlighted below) to set as the top priority. (Note – the second image shows the Inventor custom property `G_L’ that is a default used in all Frame Generator members).
Result – when the design is checked into Vault the frame and members remain in the editable WIP state, whilst standard CC parts are locked down in the Released state.
