The highway of our history is paved with legendary double acts: Siegfried and Roy, Abbot and Costello, Magic and Kareem, and Penn and Teller (major internet bonus points for anyone who knows the link there! Comment down below if you get it).
A duo cannot be successful unless the individuals complement each other, and in this modern world, we have another duo to get excited about. Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Vault! Yes, I just said that and I’m not even sorry.
In all seriousness, however, they do make a pretty good team. By its very nature, Inventor creates a file management situation which can quickly become unruly even if you’re working on your own, but even more so in a team. When you have drawings alongside other drawings in a folder, mixed in with assembly files upon parts and linked bitmap decals, with each file requiring the next in order to open up the drawing without issue, data management becomes a job to take seriously.
That’s why included with every license of Autodesk Inventor is access to Autodesk Vault Basic.
Vault is the flagship data management solution from Autodesk, and the Basic Edition is ready to solve a ton of file management issues before they have a chance to ruin your day. It’s been around for 13 years, and it continues to evolve and mature with each release.
Among a bunch of other things, Vault benefits Inventor because:
- You can move and rename parts without breaking links with assemblies and drawings
- Version history control allows you to experiment with design changes without fearing the commitment of the save button, roll back to an earlier version of the file at any time
- Fully integrated into Inventor is a contextual Vault browser panel, with right click menus for file management interactions
- Check out your Inventor files to reserve them to you, preventing someone in the office from accidentally and carelessly butchering your work
- In a few clicks, copy an entire design with a new top level assembly, but pick and choose which sub-components you want to reuse or replace
By all means, try to set it up yourself, but I’d always recommend seeking advice or assistance from an expert if you have that luxury.
