Vault is Amazing

[leeave96]

I thought I'd play around with Vault again today and with WFS to see if I could get either to work for me and here is what I found:

Vault:

1. Hardly any documentation.
2. Nothing intuitive.
3. Cannot prevent duplicate file names.
4. No ability to seemlessly transfer files between Vault and WFS, retain file info/relationships and prevent Vault ID number from becoming part of the WFS file name.
5. No ability to work between different Vaults.

WFS:

1. No ability to assign file location paths.
2. No ability to rename parts and update this info where the part is used.
3. Upon relocating a file to another location/directory - no ability to search for the part when loading an assembly.

I'm wondering again if we can bring back Repository?

V10 is looking better and better all the time and so is a license of Solidworks.

Very dissappointed,
Bill

ps: Ralf, sorry to be bleating again, but someone's got to do it :wink:

 

[jhiker]

I have to say it has seriously dampened my enthusiasm for Alibre.
I'm a single user. I'm by no means dim and I find it a genuine pain in the rear. God knows what it must be like to implement it company wide with many users.
I used to recommend Alibre without reservation - now I'm a lot more hesitant simply because of the vault.

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

I agree that there is some work that needs to be done in the file management area. For example these two and many more topics.

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=8929
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=8764&p=50288#p50288

Vault
1. It could use more documentation. There are many places where the current documentation is vague on details and we need specifics on things that effect our businesses.
2. Most everything I do is intuitive to me. If there is a specific thing your not getting then please ask. We will help if we can.
3. The file names in vault can't be duplicate - hence the ID number attached when you move them to the WFS. The field your thinking of is "Name or title" Letting this be duplicate is fine for me because I don't want to come up with a new name for "2x2 SQ TUBE" for each project as that kind of difference is what the Project (or any other) fields are for.
4. This needs to be fixed some how. I agree 100%.
5. I can't see any reason for using 2 vaults at once.

WFS
1. I'm not sure exactly what you mean for this one.
2.

[There should also be] an option in the Design Explorer right click context menu for "Rename Only This Part", "Rename All Of This Part", "Replace Only This Part", and "Replace All Of This Part".
"Rename Only This Part" and "Replace Only This Part" would be specific to the part selected so any other instances of that part would still be unchanged in the assembly.

3. In general relocating files in the WFS is probably a bad idea anyways. Plus you can always use the WSF search to locate it and then copy its location into the clip board and post that in the Open dialog to go right there.

 

[leeave96]

Nate,

The intuitive part is mostly the difference between WFS (and repository) and vault in general. There are many fields that need to be filled-in upon part creation and many options that are hard to understand due to lack of documentation. A good help manual would go a long way.

The reason for unique Vaults is for customer specific work. I have customers that own a seat of Alibre, but really don't use it - except for calling-up a drawing or assembly to have a look-see or printing a drawing - they have other things to do and that is a void I fill. I do all the CAD work and give them a copy of it as I go along or finish a project. I also take some of my day job stuff home, which is SW, in STEP format to work in Alibre. Since I cannot back-up part of a vault and restore it on a customer's (or my day job's) machine, then it requires more than one vault. With repository, I can make multiple repositories, one for each specific customer, save a snapshot and give them their stuff only.

On the WFS front, file location paths are important. If you move files around, say if the drive gets full and you add another, you can tell the program to look in user specified locations. Right now, in Alibre WFS, if you move a file to another location, be it another drive or folder, Alibre can't find it. This is hampered by the lack of a search function. Repository had a search function that included folders and all repositories. Searching is important when loading parts and subassemblies into an assembly. Moving files around, just for file management is most important too.

Most of these simple functions have been available in SW for years. SW has a vault, but they also have very powerful WFS tools via their SW Explorer.

Thank!
Bill

 

[leeave96]

Ooops, one more thing I forgot.

Unique file names are very important too. All of my parts are assigned a part number as the file name. Human error being what it is - causes one to duplicate a part number/file name once in a while. If when saving (as is the case with Repository and WFS), then the program alerts you to this; vault will not.

On another note, I worked at a place one time and they gave part files descriptive names. Tubing was a name, hex cap screw was a name. Valve was a name, etc., etc. Within the part file would be fields that gave the part number that would only show-up on a drawing. Unless you knew the part number, you could never be sure if the part you needed was already created. Further, there was a database that contained the part number, description, vendor part number, etc. You could search the data base, say for a vendor part number, and work back to the part number. Since the CAD file name was descriptive (and subject to anyone's interperation of what a descriptive file name ought to be) there was no positive link to the actual part number. Needless to say, it was a disaster!

Thanks and have a great weekend!
Bill