One of the reasons I hear that people initially want to use Autodesk Vault as part of their Inventor work flow is for the Copy Design tool included in all the Vault editions... But organizationally, the gem of Vault might just be the "Where Used" function. This lets an engineer or designer determine if a component is used in any other designs before making a change. This automatically takes advantage of the Inventor file relationships of files as they are checked in without having to tell the system any file relationship information.
Here is an example of a sub-assembly that is used in multiple assemblies. Any change to the 20-011.iam file would impact all of the designs and drawings listed beneath it:
Here is a short video of it in action:
Watch Video Here
Contributed by Ben of the CAD Geeks
One of the tools added to the Vault 2010 products is the ability to view the "where used" status directly within Inventor. This allows you to see how a change could impact other designs prior to making a change. Historically, a user would need to switch over to a separate Vault window, search for the file, and then view the "Where Used" tab to get this valuable information.
Now a user simply needs to right-click the part in the Vault browser and select the "Show Details" option. The "Where Used" tab is now available right there.
The "Where Used" will display any files that reference the current part or assembly in question including their respective detail drawings.
Contributed by Ben of the Tata Technologies CAD Geeks
One of the most important tools I always use when navigating in Vault or Productstream is the "Go To Folder" right click menu. This option will automatically navigate to a related file's folder location and highlight that file for you. Want to go directly to the folder for the assembly a particular part file in Inventor was used in? No Problem. Just right click on the Assembly file in the "Where Used" results for the part and pick the "Go To Folder" option.
Contributed by Ben of the INCAT CAD Geeks
