Issue:
Recently a someone asked how they could search Vault for Inventor files that contain a translation report. Their intent was to clean up the embedded translation reports from files that they had in Vault. The challenge is that the translation report is not linked to the Inventor file. It resides either in the “3rd Party” folder with the part’s browser pane or is a separate file that is downloaded to the location of the user’s preference.
Since the translation report and the 3rd party folder are not objects that are tracked by the Vault, I needed to come up with a way to find those files based on some other common information.
Solution:
To overcome that challenge, I looked to the custom iProperty that is created during the translation process.
I chose the “Preprocessor” custom property since a translated file will have that property regardless of the import file type. You could choose one of the other custom properties if it suits your workflow and you find a different property to be more effective.
To make use of this custom property, you will need to create a User Defined Property (UDP) in the Vault and map this custom property to it so that Vault will make use of your custom iProperty. An example is shown below, but you can vary the property to suit your needs.
To be able to use the property, you will need to perform a Re-Index of the file properties. This must be done from the Autodesk Data Management Console (Vault Server) and would need to be performed by a Vault Administrator.
You can choose different settings depending on your needs.
Once the properties have been indexed, you can create a search to find the files that have the translation report.
Of course, the same technique can be used to find other files by creating and mapping properties. Get creative and be productive.
About the Author
Follow on Linkedin More Content by Heath White
