CAD Revision Control

[kramarczyk]

As I have said before on these forums, the integration between Vault and Inventor is awesome. The ability to check parts in and out while working in the context of you assembly is great. Even better is the ability to see what parts are out of date and refresh them without ever closing your assembly is awesome.

In 2011 Vault was included in the Autodesk software package included in the KoP. I have not checked the 2012 software, but that may be a place to find it. We stay a version behind so that we are training people on the same version that they will use during build season. I'll look when I am in the shop on Thursday, but if somebody else has faster access perhaps they could let us know before then.

[baronep]

I am at our shop looking right now, but did we actually get a DVD of autodesk this year or was it just an online download?

[kramarczyk]

The kit of parts checklist says there was an envelope from Autodesk (pg 7 at the bottom). I am not sure of the contents.

[aboppana]

To the best of my memory, we didn't get a DVD set of Autodesk software this year. I believe you had to download it from here:
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=fir...12-LA-1-6-2012

We might have gotten a set of DVDs last year...its vaguely in my memory but not completely sure

[Radical Pi]

I got a free copy of the basic edition of Vault Server 2012 off of the Autodesk website from here at the beginning of the year. It would appear though that the file is no longer available, possibly due to the release of Vault 2013. I do still have the installer, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be legal to redistribute. Perhaps someone should email Autodesk and ask if the download link is intentionally dead.

My searching has turned up that there is no publicly available edition of Vault 2013. Based on this, it looks like you need to be a Subscription customer to be able to download it. If your team's school has a tech department that uses Inventor, I would check to see if they happen to have that access.

[baronep]

I sent an email to the education department asking for a copy of the server, we'll see what happens. They said that they would respond within 48 hours, but who knows

[DampRobot]

I too was involved in a long, and ultimately only semi-successful search for a copy of Autodesk Vault Server. (Yes, Server is what you really want to do version control. The Vault version included in the Inventor download is just a client.) You can find the thread that ultimitely resulted in a Server download here. The only problem is that Vault Server requires either a Professional or Server edition of Windows (which I don't have).

I have had similar experiences with the terrors associated with trying to "fake" version control using Dropbox or flash drives. The basic thing I learned is that top level assemblies really aren't that useful, except possibly for checking for interference between sub-assemblies. If you can live with the "Cross-part reference failure" in the top level assembly, you can probably survive without version control software. If one person can keep the only active copy of a sub-system on their computer, you can probably keep the model usable. Not to say I don't recommend backing up files, just that without proper version control, two different people really can't make edits on the same part.

A quick tip, if you aren't doing it already, use Projects in Inventor, or the SolidWorks equivalent. It really helps with keeping cross-part references and assemblies in general working coherently.

In short, if you don't want the problems you have been experiencing, you need proper version control. There are ways to mitigate the fact that you lack this, most importantly keeping one designer working on one system. It just gets too hard to try to collaborate without real version control.

By the way, I wouldn't recommend switching to Inventor just because they have Vault. SolidWorks PDM really does the same thing.

[Ankit S.]

Last year we used Autodesk Cloud (Now called Autodesk 360).

It mostly worked fine for us, except that if someone is downloading an assembly, they would need to have all the subfiles of that assembly as well. This meant downloading 50+ parts for a single assembly or transferring assemblies by USB.

However for modification purposes, like making lightening patterns or adding holes, it should work out fine.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I too was involved in a long, and ultimately only semi-successful search for a copy of Autodesk Vault Server. (Yes, Server is what you really want to do version control. The Vault version included in the Inventor download is just a client.) You can find the thread that ultimitely resulted in a Server download here. The only problem is that Vault Server requires either a Professional or Server edition of Windows (which I don't have).

Microsoft Dreamspark gives university students free server versions of Windows (with a restrictive licence).

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Microsoft Dreamspark gives university students free server versions of Windows (with a restrictive licence).

Thanks! This will be a ton of help!

[baronep]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I too was involved in a long, and ultimately only semi-successful search for a copy of Autodesk Vault Server. (Yes, Server is what you really want to do version control. The Vault version included in the Inventor download is just a client.) You can find the thread that ultimitely resulted in a Server download here.

The link found in this other thread leads to the download site, but the actual download link seems to be broken. Is there another place to download it?

[baronep]

I am having a very difficult time finding any contact information for Autodesk beyond the web forms on their website. Does anyone have an Autodesk contact for their team?

[msimon785]

Originally Posted by baronep

I am having a very difficult time finding any contact information for Autodesk beyond the web forms on their website. Does anyone have an Autodesk contact for their team?

Yes. You should be able to contact the Autodesk representative who specifically works with Inventor and FRC at phil.dollan@autodesk.com. Mr. Dollan helped 1515 acquire a vault license, and should be able to help you.

[baronep]

Thanks,

Just shot him an email

[baronep]

I received this response this morning from the form that I filled in on the autodesk education support site...

Thank you for contacting the Autodesk Education Community Support Team.

If the software you are looking for is not listed in the Download Center, it means that it is not available for download through the student site.

Autodesk offers a broad set of products on the Education Community.

Many products are also available as free 30-day trials at www.autodesk.com/freetrials.

In a few cases, products that are not on the Education Community are available for purchase from an Autodesk Academic Value Added Reseller. To locate a reseller, go to:

http://autodesk.com/reseller

Should you need additional assistance, feel free to reply directly to this email.

Best Regards,

Autodesk Education Community Support
http://autodesk.com/edcommunity

I am a little disappointed