Configuring Autodesk Inventor property synchronization

Property synchronization is the primary configurable feature of the Autodesk Inventor link. The link can synchronize Autodesk Inventor property values with Meridian document properties. This feature works with the following Autodesk Inventor property sets (Meridian property set shown in parentheses):

• Summary Information (Summary)
• Document Summary (DocSummary)
• Design Tracking Properties (Properties)
• User Defined Properties (Custom)

• Material (Material for part documents, synchronized only from Autodesk Inventor to the vault)

• Mass (Mass for part and assembly documents, synchronized only from Autodesk Inventor to the vault)

Configuring the synchronization defines:

• Which Autodesk Inventor property to synchronize with which Meridian property
• Which direction to synchronize each property, from Autodesk Inventor to Meridian or from Meridian to Autodesk Inventor

For more information on configuring Autodesk Inventor properties, see the Autodesk Inventor documentation. For information about configuring Meridian document types for title block updates, see Configuring title block updates.

Before you begin

Compile a list of the Autodesk Inventor property names used by your organization. Note the Meridian property name (and property set name) that corresponds to each Autodesk Inventor property that you want to synchronize. Also, for each Autodesk Inventor property, note whether it should be read or written, or both. In effect, determine which application should control the value of that attribute, Meridian or Autodesk Inventor. When doing so, consider where the documents will originate from, imported from outside the vault (Autodesk Inventor properties should be read) or created inside the vault with the aid of a wizard that prompts the user for property values (Autodesk Inventor properties should be written).

To configure Autodesk Inventor property synchronization:

1. In Configurator, expand Environment in the configuration tree and select Application Link Settings. The settings for each link appear in property pages in the right pane.
2. Click the Inventor tab. The Autodesk Inventor link’s settings page appears in the right pane.
3. Click the Edit button to modify the settings.

Tip    To export the settings file to your computer, click the Export button. This can be useful if you would rather edit the file in your favorite text editor. You can then copy your changes to the Clipboard and paste them into Configurator.

4. Locate the setting for each Autodesk Inventor property.
5. Edit the value of each Autodesk Inventor property setting to include the corresponding Meridian property set and property name that you want to synchronize. You can delete any unused property settings to simplify editing and increase synchronization performance. You can type comments in the file by beginning each line with a semicolon (;). Use the default property settings in the file as examples.

Tip    You can find the names of property sets and properties on the Properties page of each document type, as described in Creating and editing document types.

Also specify a flag if the property should be read-only (RO) or write-only (WO). By default, properties are read/write. Use the following format for each property:

<InventorPropertySet.InventorPropertyName>=
<BlueCieloPropertySet.BlueCieloPropertyName>,<Flag>

The following example maps the document property Title to the Meridian property Title such that the document property is written from Meridian and not vice versa:

DocProps.Title=Custom.Title, RO 

Note    When referenced in the Autodesk Inventor application link, Meridian properties and property sets must always be referenced by their internal name (no spaces or special characters), not their display name.

Note    Although Meridian internal properties can be synchronized to Autodesk Inventor properties, you should never attempt to update internal properties or Access denied errors can occur. Flag all properties linked to Meridian internal properties as write-only (WO). Only write to Meridian properties in the Custom property set.

If you want to synchronize a document property with a parent folder (routed) property, you must specify the folder type name from which to get the folder property as in the following example.

<DocumentPropertyName>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

And if you want to synchronize one document property with one of several possible routed properties, you must specify a unique identifier for each of the properties on the left side of the setting as in the following example.

<DocumentPropertyName,ID>=<FolderTypeName:PropertySetName.PropertyName>,<Flag>

The value of ID is insignificant but must be unique among all of the lines in the same section. Using this syntax, you can map the same document property to multiple folder types and the value will depend on the document’s actual parent folder. The following example uses three different folder types NewProject, UpgradeProject, and RepairProject.

PROJECTNUM,new = NewProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO            
PROJECTNUM,upgrade = UpgradeProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO            
PROJECTNUM,repair = RepairProject:PSProject.ProjectNum,WO

6. Click OK to save your changes.
7. Test the link thoroughly by synchronizing each Autodesk Inventor property. You can do this by changing the Meridian property values for a drawing in the vault and Autodesk Inventor property values in the same drawing and confirming that the synchronization occurs that way that you expect. You can manually synchronize properties with the Meridian client applications as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise User’s Guide.

Note    Additional control over the behavior of the link can be configured as described in Configuring Autodesk Inventor link options.