Vault Data Standard – Tutorial

Introduction and Read Me About Autodesk Vault Data Standard

Vault Data Standard is a data control feature helping users capturing design relevant information in a

standardized format during the data entry process in Vault Client, Inventor, and AutoCAD.

For Vault Explorer Data Standard extension adds new commands to create files or folders, and additional tabs to

the detail view. All user interface elements are customizable to match your company’s requirements for

standardization.

The AutoCAD and Inventor extensions of Vault Data Standard subscribe to the save event and display a

customizable Save New File dialog. Both CAD extensions add additional commands to edit file metadata and to

create file copies based on customizable rules.

We use the acronym VDS to shorten the full name Vault Data Standard in all episodes of this tutorial collection.

About this Tutorial

This course targets Vault key users and Vault Administrators getting started with Data Standard customization.

VDS offers several options to customize the behavior by enabling options in Vault Behavior Configuration, e.g.,

Vault Numbering for Projects. Other customizations require editing of VDS configuration files, like Dialog

definitions or PowerShell scripts reflecting the business rules and user guidance handling file’s metadata.

Advanced customizations, like dialog extensions by additional user controls or tabs, require more skills in creating

Dialogs (Windows Presentation Foundation) and in writing PowerShell scripts using direct Vault API (Application

Programming Interface) calls. This Tutorial does not cover any advanced topics. However, the transition from

Chapters 10 onwards to more in-depth scripting relates to each student’s ambitions and interest in learning

programming concepts.

VDS Tutorial - System Requirements

• Autodesk Vault Workgroup or Professional 2020.2 or newer, Client and Server in the English language. For

non-English Server environments note the additional step preparing the tutorial environment in chapter 1

• VDS Installation 2020.2 or newer, Default Configuration, en-US. Follow these steps to install the

extension: Install Vault Data Standard

• XML Editor. We recommend using an XML Editor rather than a text editor to edit the VDS configuration

files following the Tutorial’s exercises. Select any XML Editor of your preference. This tutorial

documentation used the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Editor.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-EF14D3BA-EC42-4388-A0A5-BCEB3BC3A411

• PowerShell Editor. Windows 10 operating system includes a PowerShell ISE to edit and format PowerShell

script files. Other editors like Visual Studio Code with PowerShell Extension are suitable as well.

Setup your Environment

1. Software

Instructor and Students – Client Machine:

- AutoCAD or AutoCAD Mechanical, release 2020 or newer

- Inventor Professional, release 2020 or newer

- Vault Workgroup or Vault Professional, release and update 2020.2 or newer

All client’s installations are in English; Chapter 08 requires an additional Language Packs installed for each

client; the documentation uses German language packs for all clients in this chapter.

Instructor and Students need to have access to a Vault Server:

- Autodesk Vault Server Workgroup or Professional, release 2020 or newer, English

2. New Vault – VDS Tutorial

On ADMS create a new Vault of the name VDS Tutorial while using the Manufacturing Configuration as shown

below:

This Tutorial requires an English Vault configuration. In case your ADMS server is localized (the pulldown list

displays localized configuration names), navigate to the subfolder en-US to select the English configuration

template:

3. Training Files

Download, extract, and import all training files required to follow the practical exercises of this Tutorial.

The download is available in the attachment section of the AKN Article

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/article/302121

1. Create the folder C:\VDS Tutorial\

2. Open the Zip-Archive and extract each subfolder as follows:

a. Extract all subfolders and files of ..\Vault Files\ to C:\VDS Tutorial\:

b. Extract all subfolders, files, and Zip-Archives of ..\VDS Configuration Files\ to a location of your

choice – but use a different location than C:\VDS Tutorial\.

3. Allow adding CAD files to Vault Explorer for the Vault VDS Tutorial (The training files include template

files for Inventor and AutoCAD):

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/article/302121

4. Drag & Drop the extracted Training files to the root folder:

5. Re-enable the option Disable Check-in of Design Files:

6. Set Working Folder Options as shown below:

7. To better compare screenshots of the documentation with your environment, we recommend enabling

the client option (Tools -> Options) Show working folder location:

4. Configure AutoCAD/AutoCAD Mechanical

Students will create new drawings during exercises consuming the templates added before; configure AutoCAD

Template Options to use these:

For AutoCAD:

For AutoCAD Mechanical:

You may also use the AutoCAD templates in AutoCAD Mechanical; the title block definition is different. AutoCAD

templates use MText fields mapped to file properties, whereas Mechanical drawings apply title blocks with block

attributes. Chapter 04 – Save New and Edit Files in AutoCAD talks you through the decision criteria more in detail.

5. Configure Inventor

Inventor by opening the project file Designs.ipj from Vault while refusing the check-out option:

With the project file enabled, Inventor is all set to follow the exercises for Inventor starting in Chapter 05.

6. Configuration Files – Setup Editor

We recommend using the same Editor as shown in Videos and Exercise images for editing xml, ps1, xaml, and text

files.

Download and install Visual Code from https://code.visualstudio.com/. After installation, add the PowerShell

extension within the Editor:

https://code.visualstudio.com/

First Insights on Data Standard Configuration Files

Get a sneak peek on the VDS client configuration files. The configuration for all VDS client applications Vault

Explorer, Inventor Vault, and AutoCAD Vault install into all users’ Program Data files. The path relates to the Vault

version installed; the tutorial documentation uses Vault 2020, for later versions update the version number in the

path, respectively.

C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Vault 2020\Extensions\DataStandard

Access all folders and files using VS Code Editor:

Instead of editing the default configuration files in the Autodesk VDS default folders, you should copy the file

before to the *.Custom folder structure and edit there. Data Standard extensions read all available configuration

files during the start-up of the application and will prefer custom files as they exist.

Note – Multi-language support definitions are stored in the subfolders named according to the locale/language

code. Autodesk default and customized configuration use these in common. Your company configuration backup

needs to include all language definitions and client language packs applied plus the *.Custom\*.* configuration

files as a minimum.

See also Help: Data Standard Configuration

http://help.autodesk.com/view/VAULT/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-547E1852-A866-45ED-A687-294208B412AB