C3D and Vault

[Phil Ferguson]

All right...I clipped this from the Civil 3D General Forum and it's part of Marks response to another question but this part caught my attention and I thought it deserved another thread.


<snip>... Wait till you see 07 though! Since they have announced it, I am really excited about the Vault with 3D.<snip>

I am not familiar with Vault and have not had the time (yet) to research. What functionality does this present and what type of tools will we be able to leverage?

[MHultgren]

Got your attention huh? Essentially the Vault is a Doc. Management System for C3D project data so you can save the data to the 'Vault' so everyone has access. One person can 'Check out' the data for Read-Write and everyone else can still get Read access to the data. You have a choice now, save the entire project in one file, or in a library that others can access.

[dmarx]

Got your attention huh? Essentially the Vault is a Doc. Management System for C3D project data so you can save the data to the 'Vault' so everyone has access. One person can 'Check out' the data for Read-Write and everyone else can still get Read access to the data. You have a choice now, save the entire project in one file, or in a library that others can access.


But the demonstrations i have seen of vault it is more of a File managements system and will do very little to help bring back "project" type file usage and sharing of project data. I could be wrong, and i could have been shown differently that how it is intended to be used with C3D

[MHultgren]

That is exactly what a DMS is. Kind of like a librarian. One person can check out the data with the ability to Write or overwrite it while everyone else who checks it out can read the data and be notified if\when there is a change to it so they can reload it into their files. Similar to the Multi-user capabilities of LDT. Once a Lock was placed on a file (alignment.mdb for example) only that person could make changes to that database. Others could still Read the data, but couldn't create a new alignment while the lock was placed by someone else. The Vault just gives us that capability with 3D.

[dmarx]

That is exactly what a DMS is. Kind of like a librarian. One person can check out the data with the ability to Write or overwrite it while everyone else who checks it out can read the data and be notified if\when there is a change to it so they can reload it into their files. Similar to the Multi-user capabilities of LDT. Once a Lock was placed on a file (alignment.mdb for example) only that person could make changes to that database. Others could still Read the data, but couldn't create a new alignment while the lock was placed by someone else. The Vault just gives us that capability with 3D.


But is the alignment still contained inside the "working" drawing? so that only one person can be in the "working" drawing? Maybe i am missing the concept of how this is supposed to be like LDT. Because LDT held the alignment, point data, etc. outside of the drawing.

[MHultgren]

With the Vault, you have a choice. You can save the data inside the dwg or you can save the design data in the vault but the intelligence and graphics are still maintained from what I understand so far. Check out some of the threads in the Revit and Viz forums regarding the Vault for more information.

[melanie.santer]

All of the design data is stored in the drawing and the drawing is stored in the Vault. Although you do have the ability to check in or check out intelligent objects such as your alignments.

Make sense?

[lpohlmeyer]

For a really good explaination, see Scott McEachron's blog...
http://c3dpavingtheway.blogspot.com/2006/04/vault.html

[danny.counts]

As Melanie said, although it appears the data just resides in the Vault, the data really resides in the drawing. When you access an alignment from the Vault, you are really opening up the drawing that contains that alignment.

Check out my blog site that lists a proposed workflow for Vault... latest article. This should help.

http://digginginc3d.blogspot.com/

Danny Counts
L.A. CAD, Inc.

[CNAPIERALA]

Data reference information is stored in a .xml file that is put in a vault "project" by default. If your curious you can go into vault explorer and look at it. As Danny said all the data is stored in its original drawing file. This is actually quite handy if you need to take a file home to work on. No need to copy the entire project anymore...

The project.xml file will look similar to this:

- <ProjectInfo>
<ProjectDesc>Default templates</ProjectDesc>
- <Shortcuts>
- <Shortcut name="$Road ShowGrading-01.dwg:eg">
- <Criteria>
<File name="$Road ShowGrading-01.dwg" />
<Object type="AeccDbSurfaceTin" useType="0" name="eg" useName="0" version="1" useVersion="0" handleLow="541893" handleHigh="0" useHandle="-1" />
<DisplayProperties layer="0" useLayer="0" color="1" useColor="0" lineType="ByLayer" useLineType="0" lineWeight="0" useLineWeight="0" />
<Vault sourceDrawingMasterFileId="253" parentHandleHigh="0" parentHandleLow="0" objectDescription="" />

[sinc]

This is the part I'm trying to figure out.

I've discovered that the Vault only works on XP Pro. So it seems I can't use the Vault at home, unless I upgrade my home computer from XP Home to XP Pro. There's data shortcuts, but the documentation warns against using both data shortcuts and Vault Projects. I'm still not sure how to handle this issue. From what you are saying, I may be able to completely side-step it...? It sounds like maybe I can just use the Vault while at the office, and maybe can only create new Project objects while at the office, but might be able to do limited work from home? Or is that not right either?

I'm still not sure what I think of this new "the-Project-is-in-the-Vault" arrangement... I might end up liking it a lot better once I get used to it, but the transition period is a bit rocky...