by Chris Turner
From time to time I have people ask me on automatically checking files into Vault. This can be done quite easily using the Inventor Task Scheduler. It’s not specifically something I would usually recommend, but I guess there are some people who can use this if required. I’ve never found checking all my files into Vault everyday necessary and I personally prefer to rather check in when I reach certain milestones, but this can be scheduled Weekly, Monthly and even Daily as needed. Always bear in mind that this creates an additional version in the Vault.
First of all, fire up the Inventor Task Scheduler. You can find this easily on the Windows START menu.
You will find listed various available tasks. Select the CHECK IN TO VAULT.
A dialog is displayed where you can set what you would like to ‘check-in’.
IMPORTANTLY, first set the correct Inventor Project file for the Task Scheduler to use for this task.
Next, select one of the options to either check-in:-
- A whole Inventor Project (Not recommended).
- A selection of files.
- A folder.
NOTE: I would not advise you select the option to check in the WHOLE Vault by choosing the Inventor Project. Depending on the size of your Vault, this could take a VERY LONG time to Pre-Process before the files are actually checked in. Rather include SELECTED files / folders.
I have selected a couple of folders to check-in. Consider also the order you would like to check files in.
Give the task a new name and set the other Task Properties for frequency, time of day etc.
When you have selected the what you need, click on OK. You will then be prompted for the normal Check-in OPTIONS (DWF, Comment etc).
Close the dialog boxes and depending on your environment, you may be prompted for a user login for Vault and/or windows login to run this Task. Fill out your credentials as needed.
The Task Scheduler will first ‘Pre-Process’ what needs to be done, so if there are files that are already checked in for example, they will be excluded. As mentioned above, because of the pre-processing, I would not advise the option to check-in the entire Vault.
Once pre-processing is complete, the files are checked in for you. Take particular note where the logfiles are written, so you can analyse these if you see there are any errors.
Happy Vaulting!