Recalling Vault History using Labels

There is a tool found in all versions of Autodesk Vault that will make your job of recalling Inventor designs a walk in the park.  The tool is called "Labels", but before I jump in and talk about the process of using labels, I want to give you a couple of scenarios just to give you a reason to use this marvelous tool.

Scenario 1: Your company designs equipment in Autodesk Inventor that will go through numerous changes during its usable life.  Let's say the original equipment design was created in February, 2017, the design was locked down and 50 assemblies of this design were shipped soon after.  Now we will turn the clock ahead to July, 2017 and your company determines that the original equipment design needs to be revised and improved for a new customer who has ordered 60 assemblies.  Your company design team is worried about revising the original design files because they may not be able to remember the design as it was shipped for the original 50 assemblies.  What if the original equipment needs replacement parts?  What if the customer who ordered the first 50 assemblies whats some design changes?  This is a great use of the "Labels" command inside the Autodesk Vault application.

Scenario 2: Your company creates a particular consumer product.  The product is originally designed and manufactured in large quantities.  The production design is assigned a model number to identify the particular design.  Well into the production, it is discovered that a small change would increase sales so the engineering team needs to start with the revision of the original design and wonders the best method of retaining the the original model number design while moving quickly ahead on the creation of the newer model required by sales.  They know they must retain the original model's design in order to support their replacement part division as well as making sure they can document the original model for regulator bodies.

Both of these scenarios have a number of solutions but most of them are very time consuming and subject to error, take a vast amount of time and probably will create confusion as time passes and memories fade.  Many companies will simply copy all the Inventor models and drawings to a safe protected folder so they can retrieve them if and when they are needed.  Some companies will create reams of production drawings with the hope they can find the correct one if an older model has to be reconstructed.  The Autodesk Vault offers an effective, quick, and simple solution to these types of situations and the process will not depend on someone retaining past design knowledge for years or even decades.  Vault "Labels" are the answer so let me give you an example to show you how it works.

I will first give you two views of the completed design of my companies product.  The design is finished and all supporting models and drawings have been created using Autodesk Inventor and checked into the Autodesk Vault.  Production will start next week.

The production run is complete and the first 100 assemblies have been shipped.  During the production run, another customer has ordered 250 assemblies of the same design except they want two changes to two different parts, the vertical post and the base.  The engineering department needs the new final design quickly but must preserve the initial design for replacement parts and support of current production. The first step is to create a "Label" in the Vault which essentially is a "historical design bookmark" between the original design and the modifications required for the new design.

A Vault user with "Document Editor (Level 1)", or higher, security logs into the Vault, and selects the "Labels" tool from the Tools menu.

In the Labels dialog box, left click on the "New" icon to open the New Label dialog box.  The first thing it to select the target location of the label.  Using the three dots at the end of the field, browse to the folder containing the completed original design.  This step should point out to your Vault manager the importance of good Vault folder structure and keeping all related design documentation under one folder.   Next give the label a very descriptive name so you can identify it easily in the future along with a description if it will help you identify the label when memories fade or the individual who created it is not available.  Select "OK" at the bottom of the dialog to finish and return to the Labels dialog box.  By the way, the only thing you can edit, once you create a label, is the name and description so take you time and select the correct folder.

Take a second to understand the file count in my label.  The label says that 43 files have been labeled and will be bookmarked at this point in their Vault history.  Why 43 when there are only 21 objects listed in my folder.  Well we must not forget about the visualization files which makes 42 and one Word document attached to the top level assembly calling out the boxing materials needed for shipment.

This is the contents of the Word document so you can see the affect of labels on attachments as well.

The label has been created, a label bookmark of the current state of  43 files has been place in the Vault.  Select "Close" to finish.  The design modifications, required for the new customer, can take place using the original files with the confidence you can return to the current design at any time.  The changes to the assembly, parts and drawings are indicated below and checked into the Vault.  The addition of the indicated line to the Word document have also been checked into the Vault.  The new design is finished and production begins on the second customers 250 assemblies.

We will imagine that some time has passed and then the customer who purchased the 100 original design assemblies calls and ask for 4 replacement assembly bases.  It is time to use our Vault "Label" created earlier.  A Vault user with "Document Editor (Level 1)" or higher security clearance logs into the Vault and select "Labels" from the Tools menu.  The Labels dialog box offers two methods of securing the complete history of the original design.  The "Restore" option will version up all 43 original documents becoming the current Vault version.  This option may not be what you desire since you would like to leave the Vault showing the modified assembly created for the second customer.  You could preserve the current Vault folder version by making another Label, then restore the previous Label.  After completing the changes to the assembly required by customer 1, restore the current assembly label.  This is a decision for your engineering department. 

 Many Vault users will elect to use the second option to do a "Pack and Go" to a separate folder under the Vault workspace and edit from these models and drawings.   Whichever method you choose, an accurate recalling of the Vault history makes the job an easy, fast and accurate task.

I decided to create a current customer 2 design label and then use the "Restore" option.  Once I am finished, I would probably make another label to bookmark the revised assembly for customer 1 then "Restore" the current design for customer 2 using my label.  Once this label was restored, it can be deleted.  This may seem a little confusing but with proper description and names, labels can be managed easily especially if only one in the engineering group handles all labels.

I will only bore you with one screenshot confirming that the label worked but you can trust me, it placed all objects to a new version using the "Label" older versions.

Two things I want to emphasis.  First, Vault labels will not recover a deleted object.  If you have deleted a model and drawing since the label was created, executing the label "Restore" will not bring it back.  Second, you can have as many Vault Labels as you desire, just take my advice and annotate them well.  If you do create and maintain numerous labels and later on your Vault administrator decides to do a purge versions history from the Vault, remember that all versions relating to saved labels cannot be purged.

I encourage you to test Vault Labels on one of your small Inventor assemblies and see first hand how valuable this tool can be.