Vault Add-in for Outlook

The Autodesk Vault Add-in for Microsoft Outlook performs basic vault functions on e-mails and other non-CAD data within Microsoft Outlook.

When the add-in for Microsoft Outlook is installed, a new ribbon tab and menu items are added to the Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 applications.

Release Availability

This feature is available in certain editions of Autodesk Vault. Refer to the table below to see if your edition has this feature. 

  2012 2013 2014
Autodesk Vault Basic    
Autodesk Vault Workgroup
Autodesk Vault Collaboration
Autodesk Vault Professional

Basic Tasks

With the Vault Add-in for Outlook, you can perform these basic vault tasks:

Map Folders

When you map the Outlook folder to a Vault folder, new email items that are checked into the vault are automatically stored in the corresponding vault folder.

You can create new mappings and remove existing mapping on the Outlook Folder Mapping dialog.

Learn about the Outlook Folder Mapping Dialog

There are two options on the Outlook Folder Mapping dialog to help you streamline your work environment,

Add a New Folder Mapping

  1. Click Add on the Outlook Folder Mapping dialog .
  2. Select an Outlook folder and click "OK." The "New" button will create a new outlook folder.
  3. Select an existing location from the list of vault folders or click Add Folder to create a new vault folder, and then click OK. 
  4. Click OK on the "Outlook Folder Mapping" dialog to save the changes. 
Note: If you map a calendar folder to a Vault folder, when you accept or decline the request you may be notified that a mail item has been removed in Outlook, and that it should be removed from the Vault.

Configure Property Extraction

In order to build a conversation structure that can be seen in the "Used" tab when the mapping has been done, the administrator can press the "Settings" Button to invoke a dialog where the two user-defined properties have to be selected. After pressing "OK" these properties are set to a Vault Option and will be used by all clients, connected to that Vault.

Note: Only users with administrative privileges can see the Settings button.

Configuration

  1. Before you use the Autodesk Vault Add-In , a user with administrative privileges has to create two properties in Vault and map them to the Outlook properties " Item name " and "Sent Date ". Please refer to 'Preconditions for Settings' in the below section .
  2. When the mapping has been done, the admin can press the "Settings" Button to invoke a dialog where the two user-defined properties have to be selected. After pressing "OK" these properties are set to a Vault Option and will be used by all clients, connected to that Vault.
  3. After this has been set, the Add-In handles email threads as file associations when a file is checked-in.

Preconditions for Settings

  1. Only for Windows XP: Install Windows Desktop Search.
  2. Install the Microsoft Windows Desktop Search: Add-in for Outlook saved mail (.msg file) indexing (MsgFilt.dll).
  3. In Vault client select Tools > Administration > Vault Settings > Behaviors tab and click the Properties  button.
  4. Select New to create two new User Defined Properties (UDPs)
  5. Enter a UDP name , such as 'Email Conversation Topic' and 'Email Sent On', select data Type Text and Date for the two UDPs. A nd make the appropriate Associations
  6. Select the Mapping tab,click in the white space under the File Property and select Import Properties.
  7. Select Import from Vault or Import from File and select a sample file from the Vault or on local disk, respectively.
  8. Select the desired MSG property . 'Item Name' mapping with 'Email Conversation Topic' and 'Send Date' mapping with 'Email Sent On'.
  9. When selecting Import from Vault a property reindex or adding a new MSG file to the Vault will be required, to perform property extraction, before the MSG properties will be displayed.
Note: Indexing a volume is an operation that can affect system performance, especially when the volume being indexed is the system volume. For best results, you can perform these steps to improve the system performance:

Configure Vault Server on Windows Server 2008

  1. Start the Server Manager.
  2. Right Click Roles and select Add Roles
  3. In the Add Roles Wizard, check File Services and click Next
  4. Uncheck File Server and check Windows Search Service and click Next.
  5. Do not check Local Disk (C:).
  6. Click Install.

Configure Vault Server on Windows XP

  1. In the Control Panel Click Indexing Options.
  2. Click the Advance button.
  3. Select the File Types Tab
  4. Find the MSG extension and set the index to Index Properties Only.