What's New - Previous Releases - Vaults 1.2
Each release of Altium's Vault Technologies continues the incremental process of enhancing the way in which you can use this technology, in conjunction with Altium Designer, to streamline and enhance the management of your valuable design data. This page reflects key feature highlights in the various updates to features and functionality within the realm of Altium's Design Data Management solutions as they are released, with the latest update always given pride of place at the top of the list. So have a browse through – you may just find a feature or enhancement you have missed or overlooked. A design gem that may well prove an invaluable productivity-booster!
We're excited about the new features and functionality included in each and every update to Altium Vaults, in addition to a host of other enhancements, crunched bugs and implemented ideas, and we're sure that you'll be excited too! And remember, keeping current with your Altium Subscription gives you access to new cool features and enhancements in future updates, as and when they leave development.
Altium Vaults 1.2
Released: 5 Dec 2013
Vault Technology Versions
Altium Vault Server: 1.2.30757
Altium Personal Vault: 1.2.30759
Vault Migration Tool: 1.2.0.5
Altium Designer Support
Requires Altium Designer 14.1 (or later)
Vault Data AcquisitionIn this release, Altium Designer facilitates the ability for an organization to copy the content they need, between nominated source and target vaults – a process referred to simply as Vault Data Acquisition. By acquiring design content, ownership is placed firmly in the hands of the receiving organization, who are free to make local modifications and maintain the content as they desire moving forward. And by keeping a link between the acquired data and its original source, intelligent handling of the data can be performed, including notification when the source of any copied content is updated. Moving forward, this ability to acquire content – or efficiently transfer content between vaults in a controlled way – opens up the possibility for third parties (suppliers, manufacturers, etc..) to create their own content vaults, potentially forming an expanded network of 'eData sources', into which designers the world over can come to source the design content they need. |
Centralized Environment Configuration ManagementFacilitating enterprise-level enforcement of a designer's work environment – to ensure that they are following the required standards expected by that organization for design, documentation and production – Altium provides an elegant solution through provision of its Team Configuration Center. The role of the Team Configuration Center is simplicity itself – to give the organization centralized control over the environment its designers operate in. It achieves this through the definition and management of Environment Configurations. These are used to constrain each designer's Altium Designer working environment to only use company-ratified design elements, including schematic templates, output job configuration files, and workspace preferences. In other words, it facilitates Centralized Environment Configuration Management. Any number of environment configurations may be defined through the server's dedicated browser-based interface. The data used and enforced by each configuration – referred to as Configuration Data Items – are sourced from an Altium Vault Server. And by associating each environment configuration with a specific user role, and in turn assigning users to those roles, the correct working environment is loaded into Altium Designer as soon as the user logs in to the Altium DXP App Server, more eloquently termed the Enterprise Environment. Using this role-based approach ensures that a designer always gets the setup they are entitled to, no matter whether they have their own PC, or are sharing a single PC with fellow designers. |
Vault-based Schematic TemplatesThis release sees the ability to formally release a schematic template into a target Item (and revision thereof) in a target vault. Once the template has been released, and its lifecycle state set to a level that the organization views as ready for use at the design level, the template can be reused in future board-level design projects. In addition, a released schematic template can be used as a configuration data item in one or more defined Environment Configurations. | Vault-based Output JobsThis release sees the ability to formally release an output job configuration file ( |
Vault-based PreferencesThis release sees the ability to formally release your Altium Designer Preferences into a target Item (and revision thereof) in a target vault. Once the preferences set has been released, and its lifecycle state set to a level that the organization views as ready for use at the design level, the preferences can be reused across installations of the software. Altium Designer Preferences can only be released to an Altium Vault Server, and only for use as part of an Environment Configuration. | Ability to Manage Access Rights for Released PCB DataWith Altium Designer 14.0, direct access to data within a vault has been enhanced, with the ability to now manage access to an Item Revision's data for a released PCB design – allowing users to see only the portion of data they are allowed to see, while by-passing the need for additional publishing. This is made possible by the introduction of sharing at the individual Item Revision level, and the propagation of sharing permissions through to a revision's data folders (Released Documents and Design Snapshot). In this way, a standard set of sharing permissions can be defined at the Item level and passed through to its revisions, while having independent control over how the data for those revisions is shared. |
State Change and Release Notes for Vault ItemsBringing further enhancement to the audit trail for Items in an Altium Vault, Altium Designer 14.0 delivers the ability to enter notes when changing the lifecycle state of an Item Revision and, for some Item types, when releasing the source data into planned revisions in the vault. | Clickable URLs in the Vaults PanelFurther improving the usability of Altium Vaults, Altium Designer 14.0 sees the arrival of clickable URLs to the Vaults panel. This functionality allows you to click on a Component Item's parameter whose value is a URL, or click on a URL in the supply chain data for a Component Item, opening the target page in an external Web Browser. In addition, you can double-click on a SCHDOC, SCHLIB, PCBDOC, or PCBLIB in the Design Snapshot region – from the Preview aspect view for a released board design (blank or assembled board) – to open that document (Read-Only) in Altium Designer. |
Support for Multi-Part Components in a VaultAltium Designer 14.0 sees support for multi-part components, through enhancements to the Vaults panel. When viewing the symbol for a Component Item, the Preview aspect view will now present each part – each with its own distinct symbol graphic – as a separate tab. In addition, the Place menu has been upgraded to present a sub-menu of all applicable parts that can be placed for that Component Item. | Quickly Explore to Downloaded Vault ContentAltium Designer 14.0 sees the ability to quickly navigate to content you have downloaded from an Altium Vault. Simply download content in the usual way, then, in the subsequent Download from Vault dialog that appears to confirm the download, simply click the Explore button. |
Personal Vault to Altium Vault Server MigrationWhile it has been possible to migrate data from a legacy Satellite Vault to an Altium Vault Server or Altium Personal Vault – using Altium's Vault Migration Tool – there has been no migratory path available for users of a Personal Vault to switch over to an Altium Vault Server. With some Personal Vaults holding considerable amounts of data, the last thing a designer needs is to have to release all that data again, duplicating their efforts and distracting them from the design task at-hand! In answer to this, the Vault Migration Tool, in conjunction with the latest Altium Personal Vault and Altium Vault Server, has been enhanced to cater for migration of data from your Altium Personal Vault to your Altium Vault Server. |