Tutorial on How to Set Up Auto File/Part Numbers in Autodesk Vault

[Music] greetings welcome to GFI and this video was made possible by me getting up early this morning getting into work early and able to leave early as well and slotting in some time after work to get this video done ok this is up there with one of the most requested topics on the channel which is the auto numbering in vault or the auto part numbering involved so let's have a look at what this is all about at the moment in your company or your office or wherever you are you might be managing your part numbers using some kind of money will register you've got an excel sheet something like this maybe you've got some partners down one side and then you fill out what it is you're taking out a partner before so I'm going to model a frame thingy that's taken by me on this date comments then you can have maybe other properties here that'll relevant your company and then when I make that model I'll call it part number one and then if I know I'm going to make a kind of few models up and block out like 20 numbers for example and then I can use these numbers safe in the knowledge that somebody else quotes bold underlined shouldn't use these numbers but you know they went depending on when they open the spreadsheet they might think that they haven't been taken there's problems with this manual technique which is why there's benefits automating it but there's also downsides to automating it as well because it's Autodesk and they always they always just make it nearly there so it's brilliant but it could be embedded and that's pretty much sums up the numbering scheme so how do we create them well what you do is you head on over to the vault client and just f.y.i man you need to be an administrator involved to do this some level of an administrator anyway and now that we've got more than one type of admin in 2018 you've got tools administration and you go to vault settings behaviors tab and then in the numbering area you've got a big define so when you click define it opens up the numbering schemes dialog box and you can now configure your numbering schemes in here now vault gives you a numbering scheme called sequential out-of-the-box right it's not active and it's not default which means it's not doing anything so if we head on over to inventor and then we've got a black model hit save you get the normals you know part 1 part 2 part 3 drawing one drawing two drawn three there's no numbers being issued from fault this is inventors own internal numbering system for its parts and drawings nothing to do with fallout or so we want vault to start giving us part numbers and by part numbers we actually mean file names right this is where the confusion begins with a lot of people you tend to refer to it as a part numbering scheme but it's actually all it's doing is giving you a file name but because of the way inventor works your partner that is automatically your file name so by giving you a file number you are getting a part number at the same time so let's look at how to make them so you head on over the vault and back to the numbering schemes area and you click new so we're going to create a new numbering scheme now you've got to give it a name right in this by the way just there's a lot of ifs and buts and by the ways and be aware of that kind of thing because it might not work in the way you think it works when you create a new numbering scheme in a vault it is immediately available to everybody who uses vault you cannot say this group of people use this numbering scheme this group of people use this numbering scheme that would be brilliant if you could but unfortunately you can't so all numbering schemes that you create are immediately available and visible to everybody who logs into this vault regardless of where they are in what job they do which is a problem the problem because it kind of makes you limit and restrict how many numbering schemes you want to create so let's create a new numbering scheme so will call this TFI mechanical parts or something like that I don't know TFI mechanical part so we are the mechanical Department this is the numbering scheme we're going to use in the mechanical Department then what you've got to do is click new when you click new you are starting to build up the segments of your part number right if you think of a part number as PT - 1 2 3 4 PT is the first segment - is the second segment and then numbers at the end is the third segment so you've got to build up those segments using the new button here so you click new and we can say right the first segment is going to be a choice the choice you can't have all in the mall some of them just one of them it's going to be a choice of one of these field types so typically the first segment of your part number is normally but not always fixed text so for the fixed text segment you give it a name the name in my opinion is irrelevant it doesn't mean anything it doesn't go anywhere nobody can see it at the moment but I usually just say this is the prefix of the part number and then it's going to be PT click ok so once you've created your first segment volt starts to build at the preview of your part number here so currently your part number is two characters in length then we're going to click new again the next thing is going to be a delimiter and that can be a - it can be a . it can be a slash so delimiter PT - now the next segment in the numbering scheme is going to be an automated number it's going to be an automated member starting at one going up to whatever you wanted to go up to so you click new auto-generated sequence and then I usually say this is going to be the then the number and note number how many digits in the number do you want it get highly recommend if you if you can give yourself as many numbers as possible don't say well you know that started there one and that's let's go up to 999 because you'll burn through those numbers pretty quickly so let's say six characters and we're starting out let's start it 1 the good thing about this begin if you're taking an existing numbering scheme that you've been managing manually and now you're automating it you can say to vault right well I'll be managing this numbering scheme manually and we ended it on part number PT - zero zero zero five five five right so you can start this at zero zero zero seven hundred so there's no overlap on the partner there's now a vault we'll start issuing numbers from 700 up to nine nine nine nine nine nine nine so it's pretty good but because I haven't got a manually managed system we can just start this at one going up to nine nine nine right step size is one I've never had a need to change this but you can do you can see will step up by two so you're gonna get one and three then five and so on and then zero part the auto-generated sequence means that do you want the zeros to be you know when it's PT - users reserves you want you want to see the zeros there what you just wanted to be PT - one well now I want the zeros there so you're going to take that click ok and that's your part number scheme created now you can add additional segments to this part number if you want to you can say write new let's put another delimiter in let's have another - and then new again you can have things like for example predefined pick lists now this is actually quite useful however the radicand downsides to this but the predefined pick list means that whenever someone clicks save they're given the option of selecting a drop down list and picking from a range of values to put into the part number so you can say right well this is going to be you know type and then you can have a code which is good this is what's going to be in your part number so you could have like fab you know for fabrications and then you can have I don't know DVD for derived parts you can have SH are so shrink wraps whatever whatever but you can have a range of pick lists you can have a pick list with a range of their values for Parliament click and then you go to make one default of course there's always got to be one that is the default so we can say right click on can you right click and do it not got just like select as default click OK I'd always click forced up because even though the only text like is Inlet as I've got in here are already of the case I always just select poster of the case anyway just to make sure that it will always be of the case click OK and that's your part number scheme created TFI mechanical part so now it's ticked is active that means that that numbering scheme is now going to be applying itself to any models that you create an inventor and because we've only got one part numbering scheme you're not given a choice if you say I want to partner bling schemes active people can pick from this one or this one you can make them both active but then for example make this the default one so let's close that close that hop on over to inventor and see what happens so now when we click Save on our part it says write generate a final number because our noon bring scheme was default that's the one that starts in the drop-down this but notice I can now pick between that one and sequential so we've now I've got PT that's that was fixed text you can't change it some can't override that the delimiter you can't override that this set of hashes here is a set of numbers from one to nine nine nine nine nine if you're thinking is of why they hashes it's because it's the a unique way in which Autodesk have designed this they don't actually allocate you the number until you press okay at this dialog box I don't know why it must be something to do with concurrency someone else pressing save at the same time and potentially getting the number at the same time as you I don't know I don't know I don't see why you couldn't have just had you know the number at this point and then you know the next person who clicks save well that numbers taking because I've just taken I don't know I don't know but either way this is the way it is so you don't see the number you're going to get until you click okay but there's the there's the fourth segment of the part number which is the delimiter and then this is the drop-down list where fab fabrications derived parts and shrink wrap so you can say this is going to be a derived part click OK and there you go with now got a part number PT 0 0 0 0 1 - DVD - I PT that part number is now used part number 1 is now used you cannot if I press escape that's it it will not issue part number 1 again even though I cancelled the safe it will not issue part number 1 again and click Save and then choose DVD and click OK you can see we've now got PT - 0 0 0 0 2 - DVD so part number 1 has gone the other thing to be aware of as well you might want this you might not I don't know but you've got no choice in the matter and that is the numbering scheme from 1 to 9 9 9 9 9 is unique to the entire structure of the part number what I mean by that is if we choose save again and we pick for example shrink-wrap it's going to reset the number back to 1 so we're going to get PT - one - shrink-wrap not PT - 3 - shrink wrap so if I click cancel on this hit save drop this down select shrink wrap you can see it's now issuing number one again so in our system we would have PT - 0 1 - DVD 1 - shrink wrap 1 - fab rather than one - shrink wrap - - DVD 3 - 5 if you know what I mean so that's something which you've got no control over you cannot you can toggle like that's it that's the way it is you've got no say in the matter okay so that's the way the partnering schemes are created that's the way they work had none over back to vault and if you click tools administration vault settings go back into behaviours and then the numbering schemes you can create as many of these part numbering schemes as you want so let's hit new again let's make a third one let's call this TFI Electrical numbers let's create and click new the fix text is going to be you know same again prefix PT and okay new delimiter - ok new or number sequence 6 no that's blue fix 6 characters starting it rough starting at 1 going up by 1 0 plug the numbers click OK right and then we could go delimiter - ok and then click new write the other types of fields which you can have here which we haven't looked at yet one is free text free text is the ability for someone to manually type in anything they want into the part number which is good that's actually good I've not used it yet I've not used it in anger in production yet but I can still uses for it and you can also limit this so people can't go crazy with this you can say right at the end of your part number because these are electrical parts these could be you know resistors trillion transistors capacitors to be any kind of you know from any vendor of all types so we need to create part numbers which are unique to these components for the electrical team well you can say right well this is going to be the comp Chrysler can't spell combo type default value is going to be you know maybe for a default value you might not want a default to a component name so what I do in times like this is I say default value is please type something like that so people can't accept that and then the max length could be maybe I don't know 10 characters something like that providing that this year is more than 10 characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 and might not be back yes it will much less a max length 15 a max length required forces the user to actually type in 15 characters as well so that's that's something again which I wouldn't really encourage you to do unless you've got a specific use case to do that which is perfectly possible and then that's pretty much it I mean the last one is the workgroup label but the workgroup label that is only useful well it's actually something relevant if you're in a vault replicated environment and it will append your workgroup label to the end of the part number so if you're in the UK in your work group set up by your administrator is yeah /uk then you get /uk at the end of the part number or slush you know italy or / sydney it's not something I recommend that you do but it's there if you do need to kind of differentiate your part numbers per region you can do that but I need to talk about that later on in the the downsides of using the numbering schemes because there are some serious downsides this okay right you can click OK on that again forced up the case so we've now got TFI electrical and mechanical mechanical is still the default so when you click close let's head on over back to inventor hit save we've now got the option of picking the electrical numbers and there's our free text at the end so we can say you know ABB capacitive spelled out wrong I don't know there you go there's your part number save jobs good ok that's it that is all there is to it they don't print it down sir it's brittle right before I get up the downside I don't to be probably negative about this because it's good every company I've ever worked at I've set apart numbering schemes and they've worked they've worked brilliantly right but there are some serious downsides to them which can be can be deal-breakers actually for some companies but one last point once you've used a partnering scheme you will eventually want me to know that when asked the wrong options you will eventually burn out the numbers and get to the end of your part numbering schemes that will open you will max them out the only thing you can do is delete them and create a new one right so for example in one of the companies I work for our part numbers are a B 1 2 3 4 a c 1 2 3 4 when you get to a C 9999 our next part number is ad 0 0 0 1 then it goes up to AD 9999 then we go to AE so as usual one so when that particular 2 character numbering scheme ABAC ends at 9999 I have to physically go into vault delete the numbering scheme and then create the new one at the very moment that's usually in advance you know you get plenty of warning you know it doesn't happen you know did the job of a heart pretty instantaneously it kind of builds up doing you start seeing people generating numbers in the 9000 range and you go whoo we need to start thinking about getting the part numbers just beyond on the ball on the ball make sure you don't slip so that's something which you just need to be aware of having said that though what you can do if this is relevant and if it will help is you can take a numbering scheme that you've been using hit edit and you can extend the numbers so if you've reached nine nine nine nine nine nine nine you can say right well let's bump that up to seven digits and give ourselves an extra range of numbers you can do that but what you can't do is change the prefix like I said in that example I'm just giving you a with got a BAC ad I can't just modify that prefix and then keep the same numbering scheme would have to make a new one in that instance but if your part number is just PT you can't just add extra digits on at the end and keep that going forever providing that you need or you want to keep the same structure at the beginning of the part number okay the downsides of using the numbering scheme this one's not so much a downside but it's something which you need to just take care of in your own way for example we've got TFI electrical numbers TFI mechanical parts we could have TFI structural civil hydraulic you could have numerous numbering schemes for different departments now which department is the special snowflake that gets the default tick because whichever team gets the tick there's a very very high chance that people in the other teams may accidentally start a new model hit save click okay and stop pinching part numbers unintentionally from the default scheme so if I'm an electrical team I've just taken a part number from the mechanical team all right so this isn't so much a it's not problem it's just it's just managing humans really that's all it is margin human so the way I get around that it's and tell you how you do this the way I get around that is I create a new partnering scheme called hash tag please select all right and then I click new and then in here I create free text as you know please so like I can't actually remember I did this want to know that was it please select from the list something like that click OK forced up the case and then what I do is I make that one the default numbering scheme so now when anyone is in their card program and they start a new model and then they hit save they get this please select please select from the list that it's obvious is I can make it to people that they need to do something beyond writing custom programs which interject and start forcing people to do stuff this is as much as I can do with the span of functionality so that another please select on the list and then remember to pick that department now no Department is a special snowflake and everyone is happy is I can make people happy and whilst I remember as well it's definitely worth mentioning this that you can completely just ignore the numbering schemes as well if you hit skip it will just totally avoid all the numbering schemes altogether and people are free to then type in any part number or any file name that they want to and just not use the numbering schemes now that is also a downside of the numbering schemes but it's also positive it depends on what side of the fence you're on being able to just skip the numbering scheme is good for flexibility but in an environment where you definitely always want somebody to use part numbers and not dodge the system it's not so good however with the likes of I logic and custom programming you can disable that skip button that's something you would need to contact I guess a programmer or someone on your test developer network for to help you out with okay other issues with the part numbering scheme there is no register right there is no register there was a reason why I flushed this thing up at the start of the video and that is because that is a major major thing that you're losing when you move over the vault automated part numbers it does not keep a record of which part numbers are registered registered against which models who did it in what date they did it there is no single register that keeps track of all the part numbers and another thing about vaults order numbering is you cannot block book out numbers in the same way you could do with the register so with the register you could block book out numbers one for 20 for example you can't do that with fold it just gives you a number as when you say that the only thing you can do if you desperately absolutely need to reserve a load of sequential numbers is to head on over to inventor autocad hit save and then just click okay right I've got part number 17 that's mine hit save and then just keep spamming this like this right number 18 that's mine and then keep doing that until you get to part number 30 you can now create new parts for the next week and then reuse the part numbers up to part number 30 that's the only way you can block book out numbers and reserve them for yourself with false order numbering it's not all that ideal that's that's pretty much again all you've got unless unless and I mean really unless you are desperate to be able to reserve numbers there is something else you can do but I would never recommend that you do this if you were to go back over to vault and create say for example thirty or forty fifty or hundred dummy empty models in the vault what you could do every time you want to reserve a bunch of numbers is multi-select the number the dummy part right click on them and then do a rename right do the rename or I've come back to rename in a bit but then if you use the rename wizard and choose your numbering scheme right I'll show you how to do that in a second it will then rename these dummy parts with a whole bunch of sequential numbers you could then use the numbers it gives you in the rename wizard for future models that you create providing that after you've renamed them in the vault you then rename them back to something so you don't end up a part numbers if you know what I mean but at smacks of hassle it's something which obviously I'm well aware and I'm sure Autodesk are well aware you shouldn't have to do this should be a better system here for for managing part numbers but but anyway but but under the topic of the register the only register you have is the vault itself so when someone generates a part number and put it into the vault the vault in theory is the register if you want to see where PT - 1050 - fab ended up you'd have to go into vault search for it find the file and then that is essentially a replacement for a line and a register nothing you can do about that you've got no say in the matter again it's not of a debate that's the way it is that's so just it's just worth being told that just so you're not wasting your time trying to find out whether that register is it don't exist it isn't a thing right there's two more that I can think of off the top of my head I do freestyle and make these up as I go along so I can't think of two more downside to the numbering scheme that I just need to make you aware of the first of the two is that part numbers do not work with AutoCAD electrical they work with vanilla AutoCAD AutoCAD mechanical and invent it but they do not work with AutoCAD electrical unfortunately just due to the way AutoCAD electrical creates sheets inside projects the Volt's part numbering scheme has not yet evolved to a point where it can interject in the electrical projects and issue part numbers to the sheets within a project so you can create as many partnering schemes as you want but you cannot unfortunately and force that into AutoCAD electrical okay the final downside is something which unfortunately I can't show you here but it's something that you gather you need to be told about because this may happen to you in an event that you go into a vault replicated system I've had this happen to me twice in both the companies that I work for right now it's a real thing that will happen to you it's not a random one-off it is a thing and it is extremely damaging if it happens it's something which I've raised with Autodesk and someone from more desk I know will be watching this and I hope they're aware of it but as far as I know or from what I've been told by those guys there's nothing they can do about it which I'm not sure I actually buy that is when you're working in a replicated system right I might if I can put some diagrams on screen right now to show you what I mean let's keep it simple you've got two sites right you've got a site in the UK and you've got a site in Australia and your two vaults are replicated because both sites are working out of a replicated vault that means both sites are working out of the same vault which as I said earlier on means that both sites are going to be sharing the same part number includes up so let's say for example we've got one team in the UK using PFI mechanical parts and we've got one team in Australia using TFI mechanical parts they're both being issued the same part numbers from the same scheme that is perfectly normal and it's in some cases it's ideal if you've got teams collaborating on either side of the globe however when you're working with a replicated vault which again don't don't think well this is some kind of fancy-pants pie-in-the-sky situation which never happens this pop if this happens a lot a lot of companies use replicated vaults there is what's called a heartbeat between the two sites when you check a file into a vault or make any kind of change to a file in the vault in the UK there's what's known as a heartbeat that happens between the two vaults that heartbeat sends the changes to the database from one vault to another so if I was to come into my engineering data folder and then I was to rename this folder to gtx970 - one that change needs to be sent over to the Australian vault but that heartbeat is on about a 30 second timer the people in the Australian vault will not see the change that folder for about 30 seconds that's how long it takes for my database to tell the Australian database that a change has happened and to actually action that change now what's that got to do with part numbers well when we're both working on the same partnering scheme if I was to create an in vendor model hit save pick a part number and then click OK I've just been allocated part number 3 from the data the Australian volt is not going to be aware that the UK volt has issued this number for 30 seconds so somebody over in Australia within that 30 second period could also press save and be issued the same part number by the Australian volt because it hasn't yet been told that that numbers been issued by the UK volt until that heartbeat happens and it tells it that three has gone what then happens is you end up with two people in two different offices being issued the same part number both people try to check the filing and then one person ends up overriding that other person's work how can that happen well the heartbeat again I checked my file in the vault 30 seconds my file doesn't exist in the Australian vault so the Australian guy checks in his file that vault doesn't know my files there you end up with the conflict someone has to win the vault decides and someone loses their work that's not a pie in the sky scenario that has actually happened and as a result of that whenever I work in a replicated environment which again I do too right now I work in a five site replicated environment about five sites sharing a bulk it's not possible for us to share the same partnering schemes what we've had to do is in the way we but I thought al-qaeda setup is in the numbering schemes numbering scheme area we have to have a partner in the system per site so each site uses it uses its own part numbering scheme do not share partnering schemes between sites if you're working in a replicated environment you kane australia's a bit of a foreign example I know some of my NGO are but they're indifferent prime grounds are chances of someone in Australia changing and saving a part at the same time and someone in the UK it's very unlikely that look it doesn't matter the matter Australia Italy Holland even the two sites in the UK I've had a replicated system where we had a site in in the northeast of England and back to site to the northeast of England that heartbeat if the two sites are about two miles apart from each other that heartbeat still caused this issue to happen it's still enough of the delay there for the to false to get each other in a model and for the issue the same part numbers too different people on two different sites causing an overwrite of somebody's work but I think that I'll do it for the negatives that's about it I mean they're not really they're not game changes and deal breakers to the point where I would suggest that you don't use this these are just things that you absolutely need to be aware of before you start using them so that you can work around them and avoid problems from happening before you come across them they're real trust me they're real you will encounter these if you end up in the same situation is I've been in the class with replicated volt it's unavoidable okay one last thing I want to cover just before we we wrap this up and that is using part numbers with drawings you do not give a drawing a part number what well alright so the way it works right when you create a model I should have mentioned this earlier on before one of the negatives but this is something which somebody will kind of go I didn't mention that so I'm not sure I do so here's a why am i working in inches I do not understand these alien units what is this in I don't understand it so let's model up something and then let's save this and give it a part number so you give your part number to the 3d model okay so let's say this is going to be a far bit it's not but whatever and then we'll drop that into the engineering data folder so this part is PT - er er er 4 - fab when we create the drawing the drawing inherits the file name from the part okay you do not issue drawings with part numbers however if you do work in a company that does there is an option to change that I'll show you in a second however this is the way most I don't like saying everybody because it's not true in Everest but most companies work is you'd place a view down of your part click OK and then when you hit save you can see the drawing is automatically given the part number of the 3d model it inherits that part number so you're not issuing a new number to the drawing it is possible for a part number to be different between the model and the drawing but in my head that's just confusing please it is hella confusing but if you do want that to happen for reasons which I'm sure will be perfectly valid in some instances if you go to the vault tab and then you've got a vault options there's a ticket box in here called generate file numbers for drawings and presentation files if you take that and hit save you now be issued a part number for your drawing we you'll beam in the five so the model that's viewed in the drawing is part number four and the drawing is given part number five so you can do that but that option is off by default okay I think that should be it I think that's probably enough the only other thing that you need to be aware of with part number is rename Amadas in volt and that is when you've got a whole bunch of models which haven't got a partner but you can use your partnering schemes using the rename command in Vault so you can motely select a whole bunch of models which don't have part numbers activate the rename in vault that will bring up your rename wizard hit next and then this guy grinded this is a bit clunky what you've got to do is hit numbering scheme pick your numbering scheme right mechanical parts we'll go for that one hit apply hit close and now you've got a new name here so we've got PT - and then this part is going to get probably part number six I think we're up there six seven eight nine ten so on and so on and so on if you want to change the part number per individual cell you can click in each of the cells and then change to say right well actually this one here is going to get an electrical number this one here is actually going to be a DVD file number and then you can obviously make sure that you update the part number at the same time click finish and that will go through your vault and then rename all your parts according to the numbering scheme and that is obviously shared with inventor so we're now up to part number what fourteens being used there so for teens the last number that's been used if we had on over to inventor it just again I'm sure you're expecting this to happen but you can expect my back as reserve a mechanical number they go polymer 50 and it's now the next number in the scheme alright guys that'll do that's how you use and set of part numbers in Autodesk vault for use with inventor and the same goes for AutoCAD I didn't demonstrate AutoCAD but when you create a DWG in AutoCAD and hit save you do get this same pop-up generate file number as you see here in inventor as for other Autodesk programs that like security studio max etc I don't think it works with those but I don't know I can't say I've tried it so one of the comments could maybe confirm if anybody is interested alright guys I'll do it thank you for much that was quite a long when I wasn't expected to go on for that long and if you want by all means if air TFI helps you out please feel free to head on over to the TFI patreon page and contribute it if you want to completely optional if not a light will do it for me I do likes me a good like and make sure you're subbed and all that as well if you manage to make it this far guys thank you very much and I'll see you next on toodles

Channel: Tech3D

Views: 10,700

Keywords: Autodesk, Vault, Automatic part numbers, file names, number sequence, Inventor, AutoCAD, Professional, Workgroup

Id: ja2YZOZ3YkE

Length: 33min 47sec (2027 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2017