Properties Administration
Properties Administration includes tasks to create and manage property definitions. You must have administrative access to perform these tasks.
Properties are attributes associated with a file. Vault recognizes two types of property definitions: system-defined properties and user-defined properties (UDPs). System-defined properties are those that are derived from the vault. The vault has a global set of properties that are applied to files in the vault. User-defined properties are created by using the administrative tools.
Before working with properties, it is important to become familiar with the terms, data types, and attributes associated with the Vault properties system.
Common Terms
The following table contains terms commonly used with properties.
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Associations | Attribute that determines for which entity classes the property is available. |
| Compliant | The status of a property that meets all property policies and equivalence evaluations. |
| Data Type | The type of data accepted for the property value. This type can be text, number, boolean, or date. |
| Database Property | Any property in the database, either user defined or system. |
| Entity | An entity is the system class with which a file can be associated. Entities are files, folders, items, or change orders. |
| Equivalent | The status of a mapped property when its value matches the source value. |
| File Property | A property associated with a file. |
| Mapped Property | A property from which the property being defined gets its value. For example, a UDP can get its value from several different file properties. A file property can get its value from a system property. |
| Mapping | A set of relationships between the property being defined and a property from which it receives its value. There can be multiple mappings for a given property definition. |
| Master | The property from which a mapped property gets its value. The master property writes its value to the subordinate property. |
| Non-compliant | The status of a property when it has failed to meet one or more property policies or its equivalence evaluation. |
| Non-equivalent | The status of a mapped property when its value does not match the source value. |
| Property Definition | All attributes and constraints about the property including its name, data type, initial value, mapping, minimum and maximum values, case values, in-use value, and basic search value. |
| Property Name | The name used in the GUI (graphical user interface) to identify the property. |
| Property Policy | Depending on the data type, the property policy specifies certain constraints that must be met. The constraints may include a value range, a value type, or a value format must be met. For example, a property policy might be described as follows: the property must have a value and that value must be in the range of 1 to 10. When a property fails to meet its property policies, it is considered non-compliant. |
| Property Value | The literal content of a property attribute for a specific file version. |
| Override | Determines whether the property value is overridden by the policy defined by its category. |
| Subordinate | The mapped property that receives its value from the master property. |
| System-Defined Property | A property in the database created by the system, which is then assigned to a file. |
| User-Defined Property (UDP) | A property in the database created by an administrator. The property can be applied to a file when it is added to a vault. |
Data Types
Every property value has a data type that determines how that value is read and processed.
| Data Type Name | Description |
|---|
| Boolean | True or False. |
| Date | Can be a specific date or date range expressed by a beginning and end date. |
| Number | Numbers only. |
| Text | Letters and numbers. |
Attributes
Properties have attributes that determine how the property is described and the constraints for its value.
| Attribute Name | Description |
|---|
| Basic Search | A constraint that determines whether or not the property should be included in basic searches. |
| Case Sensitivity | A constraint that applies to text data types. This constraint can be set to none, UPPER CASE, lower case, Name Case or Sentence case. |
| Enforce List of Values | A constraint that determines whether the property must have a value from a list. |
| Initial Value | An attribute that specifies the initial property value when one isn't specified.Note: Initial values are best used with write mappings. If an initial value is set on a regular read mapping, that read mapping has higher priority and will overwrite the initial value. The only case in which an initial value won't be overwritten by a read mapping is if the value it maps to is blank. |
| List Values | Displays the List Type dialog box from which you can enter and order values for a list. At least one item must appear in the list. |
| Minimum Length | The minimum number of characters a property value can have. |
| Maximum Length | The maximum number of characters a property value can have. |
| Requires Value | A constraint which determines whether the property must have a value to be compliant. |
| State | A setting on a property that indicates whether it recognizes the state of the file in a lifecycle. |
| Usage | Indicates the number of files currently using the property. Use this information to determine which properties are used more than others, to help decide which properties can be removed from the vault. |
Property Compliance Icons
The main view in the vault client has a Property Compliance column that lists various status icons. The Icons in this column indicate whether a property associated with the file is compliant, non-compliant, pending, or has failed the equivalence evaluation.
| Icon | Value | Definition |
|---|
No icon | Compliant | All properties meet policy requirements and equivalence. |
| 
| Non-compliant | One or more properties do not meet property policy requirements or equivalence. Place the pointer over the icon to learn more about why one or more properties failed compliance. |
| 
| Not calculated | There has been a change to one or more properties but equivalence and policy have not been verified yet. |
| 
| Pending | Properties are currently being evaluated for equivalence. |
| 
| Evaluation failed. | The equivalence evaluation failed. This is a rare situation and can result when the processor enters an evaluation loop. Note: On the Find dialog, an evaluation failed value is added. This allows you to search for any files for which the evaluation failed. |
Inventor physical properties
Vault includes system-defined properties for Inventor physical properties that extract automatically from Inventor files.
Available physical properties
The following Inventor physical properties map to Vault system-defined properties by default:
| Property Name | Data Type | Description |
|---|
| Area | Number | Surface area measurement from Inventor. Values display as numbers without units. |
| Mass | Number | Total mass calculation from Inventor. Values display as numbers without units. |
| Volume | Number | Volumetric measurement from Inventor. Values display as numbers without units. |
How physical property mapping works
When Inventor files are checked into Vault, these physical properties extract automatically from the Inventor Design Tracking physical property types:
- Direct extraction - Values come directly from Inventor calculations without requiring iProperties
- No custom rules needed - No iLogic rules or custom property mappings required
- Automatic updates - Properties update automatically when files are checked in
- Unit-less display - Values display as numerical data only (units are not shown)
Previously, Vault had no default mapping for Inventor physical property types besides the material identifier. This required customers to create iLogic rules on the before-save event to copy physical properties to custom iProperties, resulting in redundant information and increased file save times.
Configuration
The physical properties, Area, Mass, Volume are available by default in newly created Vault 2027. For a restored or upgraded vault, you should manually create Area, Mass, Volume properties and map them to Inventor properties.
- Vault extracts properties when files are checked in
- No iLogic rules or custom iProperty creation required
- Compatible with current Vault property settings
You can view and search these properties in Vault Client using standard property views and search functions.
Use physical properties in Vault
These properties are available for standard property operations:
- Search and filter - Use physical properties in basic and advanced searches
- Customize views - Add physical properties as columns in the main grid
- Reports - Include physical properties in custom reports
- Property mapping - Map to user-defined properties if needed for specific workflows
For more information about working with Inventor files, see Inventor physical properties.