Autodesk Vault helps design, engineering, and manufacturing workgroups manage the digital prototyping process by helping users reduce time organizing files, avoid costly mistakes, and more efficiently release and revise designs.
It is important to have a fundamental understanding of Vault before installing and customizing vault for your particular environment
A single vault environment has one Autodesk data management server and one or more vault clients.
A vault client is any stand-alone application or integrated add-in that connects to the Autodesk data management server to access files and perform vault operations.
An example is the Inventor add-in. When data is added to a vault using the Inventor add-in, the add-in preserves all the complex relationships that are created by assemblies, drawings, presentations, and other files.
You can use the stand-alone Vault client to browse the complete vault structure, add any file to the vault, and perform most other file-based operations, depending on your level of permission. You can also configure revision schemes, numbering schemes, define lifecycle behavior, manage items and change orders, and perform other administrative tasks in the stand-alone Vault client. The features available for administration depend on which vault edition you are using.
Three primary components make up the Vault server: a web server, a database, and a file store. The following figure illustrates the basic configuration of the components.
The database server tracks all the relationships between data. It acts like a library card catalog, containing indexes and pointers of where to find related information. By default, the Autodesk data management server installs Microsoft® SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express can be upgraded any time after the Autodesk data management server components are installed. The SQL server can be upgraded to:
Autodesk data management server requires that Windows Internet Information Services (IIS) is installed.
The Autodesk Vault server is actually a Web application that uses services to manage the communication between the clients and the server with Web services. The interaction between the clients and the server resembles the way a web browser communicates with a site on the Internet. The Web services use standard HTTP methods, communicating over the Web server port 80 by default. Microsoft IIS is required for multiple-user configurations.
There are four editions of Autodesk Vault , each scaled to suit your specific business needs.
Vault Workgroup helps teams create and share, design and engineering information by securely organizing, managing, and tracking data in a central location. Ease of administration enables workgroup control of data access and security, and facilitates team-based design across disciplines. Because they can quickly manage their designs and track changes over time, users gain productivity without disruption to their natural design workflows. In addition, Vault Workgroup delivers lifecycle and revision control processes directly in the design application, which promotes faster cycle times and better-quality engineering data.
Vault Collaboration includes all of the functionality in Autodesk Vault Workgroup and adds an advanced toolset that provides administrators with the scalability needed to manage large workgroups. Users can share engineering design data with downstream data consumers using the included web client and expose design-related information to the extended enterprise by publishing to Microsoft® SharePoint®. Scalable multi-site functionality enables companies to synchronize design data among distributed workgroups, extending the reach of the digital model to the entire project team.
Vault Professional securely stores and manages engineering information, design data, and documents-shortening the design-to-build and manufacture process. It includes multi-site tools to connect workgroups across discrete locations, helping the entire design chain collaborate and share project information. Take full advantage of advanced functionality by giving design departments the tools they need to track change orders, manage bills of materials (BOMs), and promote earlier collaboration through integration to expert business systems. In addition, support for multi-CAD environments means that Vault clients using non-Autodesk design products can aggregate and manage design data throughout the design's lifecycle.
These terms are used throughout the help. Familiarize yourself with each of them for a better understanding of Vault and its components.
As the previous diagrams show, each component can be configured to run on its own server. Following are the steps Autodesk Vault takes when a user performs a file checkout.
It is important to note that the client computer does not directly communicate with another client computer at anytime.