Categorizing Inventor Publisher files in Vault

Here’s a handy tip for those of you working with Inventor Publisher R1 and Vault Workgroup/Collaboration/Professional: Set up some Document Management settings for these new file types. Let’s begin with defining the files…

Create a new Vault Category for these .ipb files. The Category rule should be File Name ‘ends with’ and ‘.ipb’ for a value.

Next, assign a Lifecycle Definition to use for these Publisher files. In the Category dialog box, select the Lifecycle tab and click Assign. You may want to create a new Lifecycle Definition for these files, as there will be a new group of user potentially using Vault now (tech pubs), In my example, I use the existing Basic Release Process.

Then assign a revision scheme to use for the Inventor Publisher files. Same Category dialog box, this time select the Revisions tab and add your preference for rev scheme.

Now you’re ready to check in .ipb files from Inventor Publisher and have them automatically categorize, thus inheriting Lifecycles and Revisions. Remember, these are viewed by Vault as Parents of other files like Inventor assemblies, so be aware of transition criteria when Releasing Publisher files (namely ensuring ‘child files’ are Released).

-Brian Schanen