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From time to time I find myself working with customers that are considering Autodesk Vault, and they have an existing system. Whether its a home-built or commercially available system, I have found it valuable to keep a list of terminology handy to quickly cover any issues with semantics and terminology. This helps whether we’re in a pre-sales situation or deep into an implementation. So I thought I would share it with you, as I throw these terms around within my blog posts. Feel free to comment with questions or clarifications.
BOM Bill of Material, a list of items required to produce a finished product
CAD Computer Aided Design refers to the use of software applications to model, digitally prototype and generate design data.
Categories Opt in feature that determines a file’s behavior through revision scheme, lifecycle definition, and user defined properties, based on configurable settings in Vault.
Connected Workgroups Also known as Full Replication, synchronized SQL metadata in addition to file store contents. Is designed to overcome challenging latency and bandwidth issues often experienced when connecting workgroups across continents
Data Cards Examine details about individual or multiple files within a single interface, and modify property values as needed without having to use the Vault stand-alone client.
Data Management Refers to the control of company documentation lifecycle states and data flow between business units.
Data Mapping visualizing analytical report data directly to Autodesk Inventor models to streamline workflows, make fundamental improvements to the reporting and decision-making process, and foster faster model selection and interaction.
ECO Engineering Change Order, a method for capturing and managing required changes that affect the design, function or specification of an item where design is partially or totally completed.
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning is typically a system designed to unify all aspects of business activity including resource allocation, budgeting and process management.
File Management Refers to the management of work in progress engineering documentation
File Store Replication Functionality allowing the transfer of files between 2 or more remote sites to facilitate local access and managed by one SQL database
Lifecycle Definition A defined set of lifecycle states and transition rules that may be assigned to a document.
Lifecycle State A predefined stage describing the current status of the document.
Item A document containing manufacturing information including CAD documents
Item Number A unique identifier for a manufacturing document used to track throughout its lifecycle
Job Server Client side application that helps maximize design time by offloading automated tasks such as publish & attach of DWFs and sync properties. Custom job types can be created using the job handler and the job processor, allowing integration with custom commands.
Released (File) An attribute assigned to a version which gives priority status to that version.
Released (Item) Lifecycle state of an item or the act of approving and passing on item data to production for manufacture or purchase.
Released Biased To favor released data over non-released data.
Revision A number or letter applied to an Item or Document upon its release to differentiate from superseded items
ROI Return on Investment refers to the savings or profit realized from an initial cost outlay, in this case represented as weeks to recoup costs.
SQL Structured Query Language, a Microsoft database tool leveraged by Autodesk Data Management.
Version An internal tracking number assigned to indicate design progression of an iteration of a document and its meta-data that is created whenever a modification is committed to the system.
WAN Wide Area Network is a geographically dispersed communication network typically associated with slower connection speed as compared to local (LAN) networks
WIP Work in progress refers to items and or CAD files under development not yet approved for manufacture
-Brian Schanen
