AECCafe Voice 
Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » Vancouver Fraser Port Authority Implements Autodesk VaultAugust 30th, 2018 by Susan Smith
Responsibilities of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority are vast, as they manage stewardship of federal port lands in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.
The port authority oversees and manages over 16,000 hectares of water, more than 1,000 hectares of land, and approximately 350 kilometers of shoreline, bordering 16 municipalities and intersecting the asserted and established territories and treaty lands of several Coast Salish First Nations. The port authority’s mandate includes handling permits for all projects for proposed federal port lands use and is responsible for real estate management. It also manages infrastructure development designed to support growth and efficient operations. In order to manage all this, the port authority maintains a repository of AutoCAD drawings. They have been AutoCAD Map 3D and Civil 3D users for a long time. Maintaining source drawings from many systems such as water, communication, electrical, storm, sewer, and more is what the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s Spatial Data Group does on a daily basis. Team members create plans based in these systems and want to query features from each of them. One of the primary problems was that those features could be unintentionally removed from the source drawing if the user didn’t detach it before saving the working file. It could then be gone forever. The team really wanted a solution that could automatically create an audit trail displaying everyone who had modified a file. Joe Hedrick, manager, Infrastructure Solutions for IMAGINiT, answered some questions for AECCafe Voice on how the port authority found a solution for tracking and safeguarding its CAD drawings in the form of Autodesk Vault.
How long has the Port Authority used an Autodesk product to manage its CAD drawings? They have been using Autodesk Vault since March, 2018. What type of solution were they using before they settled on the Autodesk Vault? Typical Windows folders/subfolders. What were the challenges within the Spatial Data Group before using Vault? Challenges centered around permissions and access to their drawings. They have some strict requirements about who can access and modify drawings based on the drawing type. Since not all members of the team needed edit access, the group tried setting permissions at the Windows folder level. Shane Pittman, Spatial Data supervisor, said they wanted something that offered finer control over file permissions. The IMAGINiT team understood what was happening and why, and offered Autodesk Vault as a potential solution. The system could be easily configured and optimized to achieve their goals. How does Vault help them manage their CAD drawings better? Vault’s security model is perfect for what they are trying to do with access control as well as the historical record of drawing changes. They could implement Vault quickly because it required no customization. Did IMAGINiT set up Vault, customize it ahead of time or was it ready to go out-of-the-box? To me, customize means writing code to make the product do something it does not do out-of-the-box. We didn’t write any code for VPA. I did fully optimize it (configuration, settings) based on their environment and situation. We were able to drop that configuration into their environment and they were ready to go. What type of implementation did IMAGINiT do for the Port Authority? Vault Professional 2018. IMAGINiT understood the port authority’s workflows. Using that understanding, they completed the project with minimal disruption to the daily operations, including working after hours. The implementation team set up accounts with permissions, established a hierarchy of drawings, and moved drawing files to the Vault server. Every drawing has a record of who has worked on the file and when. It is also easy to find out when as-built files from third parties have been added to the system. Why did IMAGINiT choose that particular approach for the Port Authority workflows? Vault is the product to use for data management without cloud access. The choice has greatly reduced worries of human error and loss of CAD drawings. Tags: AEC, architects, AutoCAD, Autodesk, BIM, building design, CAD, Cloud, collaboration, construction, design, engineering, engineers, infrastructure Categories: 2D, AEC, AEC training, architecture, AutoCAD, Autodesk, BIM, Civil 3D, civil information modeling, construction project management, engineering, file sharing, IMAGINiT, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, project management, site planning |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
