AUTODESK VAULT 2014 INSIGHT AND WHATS NEW

When Autodesk announced their 2014 Suite portfolio last week, they launched their new website to coincide with the webcast. In doing so they exposed a lot of information about this years products, a lot of which hasn’t been officially announced yet. One page in particular caught my attention. If you head on over to the Vault product page, (which seems to be unloved by Autodesk, since it isn’t linked to anywhere on the homepage) you will see a stark difference between the previous Vault families versus the 2014 one:

Old Vs New

• Autodesk Vault Basic
• Autodesk Vault Workgroup
• Autodesk Vault Collaboration
• Autodesk Vault Collaboration AEC
• Autodesk Vault Professional
• Autodesk Vault Basic
• Autodesk Vault Professional

I’m really excited to find out if Vault Collaboration AEC has been integrated into Vault Professional now. There were some very nice features associated with Collaboration AEC, notably the included Buzzsaw account. Having access to Buzzsaw opens some very exciting collaboration doors, since you are able to leverage the Project Sync add-in and the various associated mobile apps including Buzzsaw Mobile & Autodesk Project Bluestreak. The only clue to this being included as part of Vault Professional from the 2014 release on wards is the AEC acronym under the Vault Professional column of the product comparison chart. We will have to wait and see for now.

If you were to head on over to the Autodesk Vault Wiki site and browse to the What’s New page, you will see Autodesk have posted the What’s New list for the Autodesk Vault Product Family. Here it is in summary:

The usual broad statements

• Improved Usability
• Improved download performance and support for 64 bit clients
• Job Processor, Replication & Purge Stability improvements
• Introduction of the Vault Developer Framework to improve extensibility

The Nitty Gritty

• Improved Usability
  • Change State on Locally Modified File. 
  • Place iFeature from Vault.
  • Open from Vault Explorer Behaviours improved.
  • Revision Table Improvements. 
    
  • Vault Browser Enhancements. 
    
  • Vault Client Preview Improvements. 
  • Updated Integrations.
    • Plant 3D project database management is now supported.
  • Revit Family Search.
• Performance
  • Get/Check Out Dialog
    • AutoCAD Vault Add-in and Vault Explorer use a common dialog
    • Configurable columns
    • 2 x the speed via parallel download processing
  • 64 bit Vault Client reduces “out of memory” issues
  • Autodesk Bulk Loading tool has been updated
• Stability
  • Job Processor Improvements. 
    
    • More control over Job Processor restart frequency
    • Improved logging for administration tasks
    • Reset to Queue Button on Toolbar by default
    • Enhanced Stability and Performance of Common Job Handlers
    • Development and Testing Enhancements
  • Improvements to Replication
  • New technology support
    • Autodesk Vault Clients support Windows 8
    • Autodesk Vault Web Client supports IE 10.
    • Autodesk Data Management Server supports MS SQL Server 2012
• Extensibility
  • Reusable business logic for common vault algorithms
  • Reusable GUI controls for common workflows
  • Extensible components that can be configured to match host requirements

It appears there aren’t any new product integrations for Vault this year. However, there have been notable improvements to most of the 39 applications it already officially supports. Here is the impressive list in all its glory:

1. Alias
2. Alias Automotive
3. Alias Design
4. Alias Surface
5. AutoCAD
6. AutoCAD Architecture
7. AutoCAD Civil 3D
8. AutoCAD Electrical
9. AutoCAD LT
10. AutoCAD MEP
11. AutoCAD Map 3D
12. AutoCAD Mechanical
13. AutoCAD P&ID
14. Plant 3D
15. 3DS Max
16. 3DS Max Design
17. Inventor
18. Inventor Fusion
19. Inventor LT
20. Inventor Professional
21. Inventor Publisher
22. Moldflow Adviser
23. Moldflow Synergy
24. Navisworks Manage
25. Navisworks Simulate
26. Revit Architecture
27. Revit MEP
28. Revit Structure
29. Simulation Mechanical
30. Simulation Mechanical WS
31. Simulation Multiphysics
32. Microsoft Excel
33. Microsoft Outlook
34. Microsoft Powerpoint
35. Microsoft Sharepoint
36. Microsoft Word
37. Microstation
38. ProE
39. Solidworks

System Requirements

If you are interested in what the system requirements are for the next release, they have also been published on the Autodesk website.

Note:

• Vault Professional ADMS isn’t officially supported in Windows 8 Pro, like it was on Windows 7 Pro. But it will install, albeit with a warning.

Conclusion

All in all that's a decent set of new features for this release of Autodesk Vault 2014. In addition it seems Autodesk have finally merged the confusing product family into what it always should have been; A ‘Free’ version and a Paid version. It looks like all the reseller support staff will have their work cut out for them this year, they have a lot of version upgrades to do. Happy Days.

Update:

Autodesk Vault Professional 2014 Upgrade – To Be or Not To Be

Vault Professional | Buzzsaw – Go Get Yours!