Overview of Autodesk Vault

- [Voiceover] Understanding the components of Vault will help to guide you through the install process. We will look at the various options when installing, configuring, and using Autodesk Vault. There are three main flavors of Autodesk Vault: Vault Basic, Vault Workgroup, and Vault Professional. Vault Basic allows us to work with DWG files and Office documents, so we have full Microsoft Office integration, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We are able to use CAD based tools, such as AutoCAD, AutoCAD Map, AutoCAD Mechanical, to upload files.

For example, if we were inside of AutoCAD, we can go to the Vault tab and check-in and check-out DWGs and modify them on a central repository, so we will store our Vault up on the Vault server, no longer will there be an X Drive or Q Drive where our DWGs are stored. They will be stored in the Vault. If we were to open up a visualization tool, such as the Vault client, we could look at the drawing, for example BUILDINGS.dwg, and we can see various thumbnails of the different versions of that modified drawing.

Each time someone checks it out, modifies it, and checks it back in, you will see that there's a version thumbnail showing. It'll show who created it, who checked it in, and who worked on it, and you can see various versions and look at them. You could even Preview to an interactive environment, where we can Pan and Zoom, Print, and look at the modified versions of the drawings. Moving forward to Vault Workgroup, it's a little more than using DWGs.

The Workgroup actually allows us to check-in and check-out DWG files even if we do not have a AutoCAD-based product, such as AutoCAD or AutoCAD Map, or Civil 3D. It allows us to look at the files for non-designers and actually check-out the drawings and put them back in. As well, gives us project life cycles and classifications, very critical. Vault Professional gives us a lot more. It gives us everything Vault Basic and Vault Workgroup gives us, but quite a bit more in terms of automated tasks, bill of materials managements, SharePoint integration, Buzzsaw integration, and one of my favorites, it's a thin web client that allows you to access the Vault through a webpage rather than having to install anything.

Regardless of versions of use, this server is installed on your own workgroup or on your own network, so you don't have to worry about putting files in somebody else's cloud, the cloud is someone else's computer of course, it'll be on your own servers with your own security. We've learned about the architecture of Autodesk Vault and the various flavors it comes in including Autodesk Vault Basic.