Beside many other things Vault is good for, it can also store your points. The workflow is very similar with the workflow used when working with vault projects and drawings. There are two components worth mentioning in here. One is vault FileStore and other is local copy, which is equivalent to checked out drawing being worked on from Working Folder. So checking out drawing or point means that copy from vault is created to Working folder. If you open Working Folder and browse to the project you will notice that project directory has two .mdb files (PointsGeometry.mdb and PointsStatus.mdb). These are the two files that store the information about the points and their status in vault and all work is being performed in Working Folder. When edits are done and drawing/points checked in, program creates another copy which it saves in the Vault.
Assuming that your drawing contains points and is added to the vault project we can begin doing different things with points and vault. Adding a drawing with points to the vault does not automatically create points in vault. Points from the drawing must be added to the vault manually.
I recently had a customer asking will vault points inserted into a drawing be filtered through the description keys. The answer is - Yes. To demonstrate use, I created some points added them to vault and set the description keys in the new drawing which matches the point description from points residing in your vault.
I also created point group with description matching AS* so that all points containing AS* (such as AS1, AS2,…) be placed in AS point group.
Then by selecting the points I would like to be inserted into new drawing I chose “Get from Project” to insert them into the current drawing.
At the end program imported all my points on the screen populating AS point group with the 2 points that matched my description. It also filtered all points and placed then into appropriate layers, used point marks as set in the description keys.
Here is a review of workflow using points with Vault:
Add to project. This option is used to add points to the vault and make them available for other users. To add select all points you want to add from list view, right-click on them and chose Add to project. Then you will see “Check In”, “Check in and keep checked out” and “check in and protect” options. For now we’ll only use Check in. If you expand Points node in vault Projects, <projectName> you will see that your points are added to the Vault database and will have open padlock icon next to it.
Checking out points: Check out option is used any time user wants to edit points in Vault. When that happens program creates a copy of points in the active drawing but it also prevents others from changing the points. Again, by selecting points and choosing Check Out program will change the open padlock icon to open padlock with check mark. So points once checked out can exclusively be modified by the user who checked them out.
Checking in points: Check in command will save the changes we made while in the drawing and will update vault’s version of the points. It will also make it available for other users to check it out.
Get From Project: When this option is used program creates a read only copy of the points to active drawing. Again, in the list view at the bottom, select points you want to add to the drawing and choose Get From Project.
Protect: protect command is used when one wants to protect points from being checked out and edited if the points are not checked out. Selecting Points and choosing Protect will lock these points and you will see closed padlock icon in the list view.
Unprotect: This command will allow protected points to be checked out or edited again. List view icon will update to open padlock.
Delete from Project: This command will permanently remove points from Vault Project…but only if the points are checked out. This will prevent users from accidentally removing points from vault. So any time you choose to delete points, make sure the icon next to the point shows open padlock with check mark on it.
Reset to Checked in: This option is displayed only when points are checked out. It will basically undo the check out of the points to the user who initially checked it out. This command is used in case when few points are updated but not want to update the entire project with changes. As a side note, if you were wondering what happens if some points are checked out to somebody who is absent-it is possible only f you are administrator using the same command.
Use of Description keys when importing points from Vault. When points are imported from Vault into new drawing they will also be filtered through the description keys and should honor its settings.
Use of Point Groups from vault. Points imported from Vault will honor Point Group settings and will populate Point Groups as the points are matched.