All Autodesk Inventor designs, including vault projects, require a project file to resolve file references. A project file contains search paths that are used to resolve links to referenced documents in the design.
Note: Inventor LT does not support project files.
The vault project file type must be used for all vault projects. A vault project file has some important restrictions that must be considered when preparing a design for the vault and require different rules than typical project files do.
The vault project settings help ensure that you have your data organized in a way that is suitable for use with the vault.
Vault Project Rules
- You must have a relative workspace. All projects must have a workspace defined that is set to either "." (the same folder as your project file) or to a subfolder underneath that, such as,
\Workspace. You can have as many subfolders under your workspace as needed for organizational purposes, however, you cannot map a search path to them.
- Local and workgroup search paths are not allowed. To keep data organized within a single folder structure, project files prevent you from creating these paths.
- Library search paths are allowed. You can have library search paths located anywhere on your network or your local computer. For more information, see the section about Libraries.
- Included files are not allowed. The vault project file does not allow them since local or workgroup paths can be added to an included file.
- Relative paths must be set to true. Absolute paths cannot be used.
When any of these rules are broken, the project file automatically changes its multi-user settings from Vault to Off.
Preparing an Existing Project
The steps to prepare an existing project for inclusion in the vault are similar, regardless of the current working environment (isolated, semi-isolated, or shared).
Assign a designated team member to vault the project, and use the following workflow:
- For semi-isolated and shared projects, ensure that all documents are checked in and all users have closed all Autodesk Inventor documents.
- For semi-isolated and shared projects, move all nonlibrary documents to a local drive. This ensures that no one can access the documents until they are in the vault. Retain the same folder structure on the local drive.
- Edit the project file search paths to point to the local folders. Open the top-level documents and resolve any link errors.