The Dan Miles Idea Factory

Autodesk Productstream 2009

I haven't seen much information around on what is new within Autodesk Productstream 2009 so I figure I would share some of the new items I have been using during beta testing.

• You can directly open and place components from Productstream within the standard dialog boxes now.
• The DWF publishing is much faster now due to the new DWFx format and several new settings.  You can even have it just publish a screen capture image of LARGE assemblies saving time in some cases.  These features are in Autodesk Vault 2009 also.
• The ECO change order process has some streamline options now to reduce user steps making it more usable.
• Tool to publish DWF files to Microsoft Sharepoint
• The new parameterized search is very nice for user inputs
• Microsoft active directory support for user accounts

These are a few things to come to mind and there are more also.  Some of these features are also available within Autodesk Vault 2009.

Let me know if you have any questions

Dan

Autodesk Vault 2009

There are several new features within Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Productstream 2009.  So far two of my favorite new Autodesk Vault features with Autodesk Inventor are the following:

Support for Level of Detail (LOD) Suppression with Open
Autodesk Inventor 2009 will not only download the files needed for the level of detail (LOD) selected during the file open from vault process.  This will reduce the amount of items your client needs to ping the server for which will greatly increase checkout time.

Searching Performance within Autodesk Vault and Productstream 2009
The engine that is used behind the scenes for searching within the Vault and Productstream 2009 has been replaced with a new method that is so much faster it is crazy.  You will notice a major improvement in search performance on 2009.  I will try to post some time studies I have done for you in the future here.

These two items will sure help everyone that works with large assemblies within Autodesk Inventor.

Dan

New R5 INCAT DM Batch Plot Program Available

I just wanted to let everyone know that last week we posted a new version of the INCAT Autodesk Data Management Batch Plot program to our labs site.  This version is R5 and contains many new features and improvements.  Please feel free to download the program at the link below:

http://www.incat.com/incat/autodesk/INCATLabs.asp?Page=Labs

Talk to you soon

Dan

Batch Plot for Vault and Productstream

We posted the INCAT Autodesk Data Management Batch Plot freeware program to the INCAT Labs website the other week if you are interested.  You can download and use the program for free.  The batch plot will allow you to batch print DWF, DWG, and IDW files from Autodesk Vault 5 or Autodesk Productstream 5. 

INCAT Labs Website

We are currently working a newer version that will also support the Autodesk 2008 products so if you have any wish list items please send me an email.

Dan Miles

dmiles@incat.com

Keeping Your Vault Clean

One of the most common things I see with people using the Autodesk Vault or Autodesk Productstream is over time user forget to check their files back in. With the new year starting soon I figured this would make for a good best practice you can implement during 2007 to keep your Vault nice and clean. If you are familiar with lean manufacturing or some six sigma methods you will know often the first thing you should do is clean up your area before making improvements. Outlined below is a quick method for creating a saved search for you to run that will provided you all of the files that are checked out. In a perfect world at the end of each day when the whistle blows there will be no files checked out so everything is safe and can be backed up. The more realistic goal would be to have less than one page of checked out files each day and try really hard to get everything checked in each week.

1.  Start the Advanced Find tool by selecting “Advanced Find” from the Tools menu.

2.  You can configure two different searches one for each user and one for a manager or group leader. 

Per User = Select the “Checked Out By” property and “Contains” for the condition.  Then enter your Vault login user name in the value text box.  When complete select the “Add” button.

Per Group (Vault) = Select the “Checked Out By” property and “is not empty” for the condition.  When complete select the “Add” button.

3.  Now you can save the search so you can quickly use the search at any time.  Select the “Save” icon and then name the search.  When complete select “Ok”.

Hope this helps you and please let me know if you have any questions

Happy New Year

Dan

4.  As you can see by the image below the saved search is now available for you to use at any time helping you keep your Vault clean