What the Heck Is Custom Object

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Everybody getting a good start? Everybody have a first class that you getting started off for you? In the class you shouldn't have been in, or class you should have been in or whatever?

So this is What the Heck is Custom Objects? So just by a quick show of hands, how many actually knows what a custom object is? Thanks, Bill. OK, so there's like three. So good, because we're going to start pretty basic on that.

So our objectives today. Well, there's me. You guys read that a minute ago. I am based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I work for D3 Technologies, a reseller. We used to be in the Midwest, but we're kind of the Midwest and up now.

That's my family. Those are twins that are in college. So I need to do well on this class, so that I keep my job. Because remember, twins in college. So that's them.

So custom objects, so it's only available in Vault Pro. It's not a work group, correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's only in Pro.

So it came out in 2014. And I read the definition. Well, first off, let me, there's a summary of the class. You probably read that. We'll go through that.

So our agenda, I'm going to describe what a custom object is and hopefully teach you what that is. I'll tell you the benefits of a custom objects. Once I figured them out, I kind of love them a little bit.

I'm going to use custom objects to link things together, so that we can make them even more powerful. I'll show you how to use the tool. We'll do a little live demo, unless I crash my computer. And then we'll configure one. I'll configure it live, and I'll show you some stuff on there to configure one.

And then briefly, we'll do a little data standard, because I think data standard makes custom objects usable. Without data standard, I don't think custom objects are very usable. So that's just my two cents.

Anybody use data standard? Like four. OK, does anybody, do you know what data standard is? Anybody know what data standard? OK, well, there should be another class on that somewhere.

So what is a custom object? This is Autodesk's definition. And I've read it. I've read it since 2014. I read it in 2015. I read it in 2016. And that's what I got out of it, because it made absolutely no sense to me.

And so for two years, I was like, everybody keeps saying this is so cool. And I'm like, I don't get it. So my definition is a table of information residing in the SQL database, which is cool, that allows you to manage lists, collections of information, collections of file, in your Vault interface.

We're already in the Vault. Why swap out to something else? Right? We can manage it all in the same place that we're doing.

So my take on custom objects is to replace your spreadsheet tracking, your Microsoft Access tracking, your whiteboard tracking. All that stuff, if set up properly, can be used inside the Vault using a custom object. And like I said, we're already in there.

So it's a little bit of access database. It's a little bit of Excel. It's a little bit of whiteboard. How many have a whiteboard in your office tracking stuff? Come on, even I have one, and I use custom objects. It's about this big, and I think it's dated now, but I have one.

Or we could do it this way, an application you already use. So that's my definition of a custom object. It just manages your list. It simply manages all those lists that you could do elsewhere or dropdown boxes or I want to populate properties based on this list that changes all the time. And I don't want my system administrator to have to go in and edit those properties.

Because it Vault, you can go into properties and you can make it a list. Right? And you can pick from it. But then what happens if you need to add something to that list? Right?

Then you have to go find your system administrator. And they have to go in and manage that. And then you can add that change to. If you make those lists out of custom objects, then assuming you have the right securities, you can just create a custom object. So lots of things we can do in there.

So what can they be used for? So the two people that raised their hand that use custom objects, what are we using them for? Anybody have an example? What are you using it for? Store? OK, sales reps. That's a good one. OK.

As you pointed them out because they do great stuff with that stuff. Yeah. OK. Anybody else using it for a list of anything? What do you got back there? OK.

I'm supposed to repeat this for the recording. So they're using it to tag different things for their manufacturing systems.

So task list, drawing assignments. I've done some projects for some customers where they want to assign a drawing project, they called it a DR number, to a certain person. And they wanted to track that. And they used it in their original one was in an old Lotus Notes database. And so we converted it to custom objects and did their drawing resources that way.

Project list, any kind of miscellaneous reference list, project numbers, drawing numbers, customer numbers, names, reps, part numbers, all those kind of things can be used for it. Containers of files, that's a new thing in my brain to use it for. RFQs, submittals.

I have a project I'm working with a company to do a drawing transmittal system, and we're using custom objects to do that. Because they need to track when it goes to their document control and when they get it out and when it goes to the customer and when it comes back. And they actually rev those transmittals separately from their files. And so we're doing that using custom objects.

So it also contains files. And I put the little asterisk there. Because when you use it as a container file, it's a link to a file. Everybody familiar with the links instead of copying a file? It's not a copy. It's just a shortcut to the file.

So those are just some of the things that come to mind when I talk about how we can use custom objects. And there's it's really an endless list. It really is an endless list. But those are just the things that come up quickly.

Oh, and then we disappeared. OK. Oh, I'm going the wrong way. That's why. You should practice with these things before you do it. OK.

So what if? What if a custom object is a list of companies and customers? You do that using your reps, right? Kind of the same thing. And customers. OK.

And the second custom object is a list of all those contacts. And they reference their company. And a third custom object is your drawing transmittal tracking system. Obviously, this is the kind of thing that I'm working on. Right?

And so the drawing transmittal form comes up using data standard. And they get to pick the company that it's going to. And then that populates another combo box that picks the contact that it's going to, which gives them the email address. Then they put all the files in there, and then they produce a report, which happens to look a lot like a drawing transmittal form. Right?

And then you can use some other cool stuff and have it automatically publish PDFs and submit that to you, if you want to kind of work outside. You guys that are standing, if you don't want to stand, there are some seats up here. Unless you-- I won't throw things at you. I promise.

So that's just the what ifs. So what if I could make all that happen? There's a lot of programs out there, I say there's a lot of programs out there that'll do drawing transmitters, but they're separate. Right? So they're different. You have to leave where all your files are and go do it there. So I like it for that use.

Can we link all that together? Yes. Can we track it? Yes. Can we see it in one place? We can. We can track the progress.

So custom objects, once they're created, they work just like a file or an item. Right? So you can assign a category, or if you're one of the coolOrange guys, a category. We had that conversation last night.

You assign a category, a lifecycle, to it. You can assign all the custom projects to it. You can even have its own rev scheme to it. And you can assign all that to it. So we can track all that progress with it.

We can generate reports based on that information, because let's be honest, it's in SQL. Right? And so once it's in the SQL database, then you can use the reporting features to search inside of Vault. Or if you want to get real crazy, you can go right to SQL. But you can use the reporting features right inside of Vault and do the searches and then produce reports.

What transmittals are sitting at my document controls desk? What companies are outdated? What companies haven't been reached out to in the last x amount of days?

You could do all that assuming you have those properties and produce those reports right inside of Vault. OK? So we've never left Vault to do any of this. I'm not opening Excel. I'm not checking my whiteboard. I'm not going out to some other format to do it. I'm doing it right where I work all day long in my engineering data.

And can those reports be auto generated? They can be. Not out of the box in Vault, but they can be auto generated using a job processor of some kind and emailed. If your boss wants one every Friday at 5:00 that says what RFQs have been sent out and what status are they in, that can be done. That can be done using the custom objects in the searching that's available about that.

So any questions so far? Because I tend to ramble really fast. So you guys need to interact with me. Nothing yet? Yes? Yes. Yes, you can. Yes.

There are several different ways to do it. And if you're familiar with the guys at coolOrange, they got tools that'll help you do that as well. But, yes, you can use PowerShell scripts and import all that. And I did for them. Yeah, I imported all that information in. Yes, good question.

So the question was importing. I didn't repeat. So he didn't wave at me back there. But so any other questions before I move on about this? OK.

Oh, yeah, securities, I have left that one off. Can you control who can see it and manipulate it? Yes, just like you can with files and lifecycles. I can lock them down. I can do write and edit and deny securities, just like I can on files.

So if I don't want him to see that custom object, then I can lock him out of it. And I can let you see it, if I want to be that way. So I can do all the securities on that just like you can for a file.

All right, so benefits of a custom object. And I have all these notes and I haven't looked at them once. So we're just flying through here. Let's see where am I at? It's because I need glasses to do that. OK, whatever. We'll just go with it.

So tracking items in the same media, I keep going back to that. Because to me, that is huge. I hate to get out of one thing and into another. And I have to have my inventor open. And I have maybe AutoCAD open. And then I have Vault open. And then I have to have Excel open to see who's supposed to be working on that project.

Or I do a lot of project management. And project management, I have to be in all those things. And I have to look at all those files. And so tracking it in one form of media, to me, is huge. And I think that's the biggest benefit of it.

Linking the files together, so and I'll show you an example of this in a minute. If on that drawing request thing, they had another custom object was their contacts, which was their designers. And so I would link a designer to a drawing request.

And that designer could go pull up his name and see all of his drafting requests that he has and what status they're in and maybe who the supervisor was on it, what the project name was on it. Everything was in one place. And he didn't have to go dig through files or have these stacks of files on his folder or an Excel spreadsheet that looked something like that.

So this is what it looks like in Vault. It looks like that spreadsheet that I just had up there. Because I made them look the same.

So I have the project list, description, project due date, assigned to, and status. And in Vault, I have the task name, the description, the project, the due date, and the state that it's in, whether it's scheduled or started or finished. And that's all handled by a category.

Now I don't think there's a pointer for this. This datasheet thing right here, that's a data standard thing. That's not out of the box. OK? Just so you know, because it's all installed on my system, so it's hard to make it go away. But that's part of data standard, and so it shows you.

But you can see here that this create AU handout, which I was late on. Were we all late on our AU handouts? OK. It was assigned to me.

And so I can see in the where use tab, just like I can with Inventor, right? I can see the parent child relationships. I can see those with custom objects too. So I have that link.

And the reverse is also true if I went to contacts and went to my contents or where use tab, I would see everything that's been assigned to me that way. So it works both ways, unlike the whole parent child thing in Inventor works, right?

So and then you still have all your properties over here, your standard ones. Then your user defined that are assigned just to this category. And you can get as complicated or not complicated with these as you want to.

But these things are, if you're trying to do reports off of them, things like due dates and project name and who's got it and what status they're on, we can report off of all that stuff. Right? Yeah? It cannot be done in work group. It's only in Pro. Yeah, custom objects is only in Pro. I don't know why necessarily, except they have to differentiate them two somehow. So but yeah, no, it can't be done in work group. It's not available.

So linking objects and files. So just like I was just talking about, because I got ahead of myself, I can assign it and it shows it down there in the where use tabs, the links to them.

So how are we going to use a custom object? So you can use it-- well, that's a stupid slide, so we'll go on to it. OK, so when you create a custom object, and the reason I started with task is because I'm going to talk about data standard in a minute and a custom object called task is predefined for you when you install data standard.

And so if you have in test environment, create your custom object called task, and everything for data standards set up for you automatically. And it gives you a base to go by. So and we'll get into that.

Oh, great question. His question was, do you have to pay for data standard? No. It's a subscription benefit. Yeah, it's on your download. It is a separate install.

And there's three different installs for it. There's a Vault install, an AutoCAD install, and an Inventor install. So the next question is, do you have to install them all? No, you don't. You only need what you need. Right? I have them all installed on mine.

You can just use, and I have a lot of customers that just use, the Vault side of it. It's silly, because the Inventor and AutoCAD sides of it are really cool too. But you only have to have the ones that you need.

So this is what it looks like when you do it without data standard. So up at the top, when you create a new one called task, in your upper left hand menu of your Vault, you get a new, and then it says new task. And it brings up that dialog box. And all you get is the name. And once you create it, you have the properties list over there.

And that's really good. But then, just like in regular Vault, if you want to edit all those properties, and you have to go over to the properties deal over here and hit that little edit the properties and do all that. So you don't get a cool dialog box, because you only get the name. And I like that GUI look in front of me.

So if you do it with custom objects or with data standard, then the dialogue looks like that. Much better, right? When I create new, I have to right click to get to that. Because the new up there at the top left would be the same as the standard one, unless you programmed it differently. But if I right click on it, hit new custom object, and I can rename these, and we'll talk about where to do that in a minute, then I get this dialog box here.

I still get the properties. And I can still do it that old way. And in the category, you know you can create a property that says it's required, right? And if it's a required category, it's red, circled in red. That's standard out of standard out of data standard. So it's kind of a conundrum.

And then notice then I can assign the category, and I can use numbering schemes for my custom objects as well. I can put in a name. I can set the state. And then I can fill out the properties that are required for that category right here.

Notice my OK button is grayed out. And that's because the required property is not filled in. So if you're thinking about just letting your mind go off of custom objects into anything else, how many of you hate it when your designers or somebody puts a file in there and they don't fill out your properties? Yeah.

So if you install data standard out of the box and don't do anything else to it, required properties have to be filled out before they can hit OK to save a file. So just FYI. Yes, sir?

Same thing. No. Then it's going to bypass it. So you install data standard for Inventor and data standard for AutoCAD. And when you hit file save in AutoCAD or Inventor, a dialog box almost identical to this comes up instead of the normal file save one. And I don't have that.

But it has some other things up here that talks about path. And it actually looks into your Vault and let's you pick that path. Because I don't know about you guys, but especially the newer people involved, they save it to their local drive in some folder. And then they check it in Vault, and then I've got this stupid folder path in Vault that's not what I wanted.

Well, if you use data standard, it actually lets you pick the path inside of Vault. And then it puts it in your local workspace based on that path in Vault. So it has dropdown boxes that says, dollar sign and then designs. And then what's under designs is in the next dropdown box until you get to where you want.

And once you assign all that, then it populates the working folder for you. But you have to have the Inventor add in and the AutoCAD add in in order for that to work.

I don't know that we can disable that in it. Because there is a button at the top of it, if you go to the data center tab that says disable it. Kind of becomes a training point then. But there is one way. You can say, you can use this or you're not going to have a job. And then that usually works really well.

But I don't know. I guess we could disable that button in the ribbon. I mean, if you're pretty good at your GUI stuff in AutoCAD or Inventor, my guess is you could take that button out. But I haven't tried it. Just disclaimer there, I haven't tried it. But maybe we should, because I get asked that often. But we could probably take that button out.

But anyway, it works the same way. You get that. OK button doesn't come up to save a file or create the file until their required properties are filled in. So a little side deal on-- so let's look at, I'm going to have to put my glasses on, because I'm getting old.

Let's look at this in action. Let's see, make sure I cover what I thought I would cover. All right.

So I have in my Vault-- can you guys see that OK? Or want me to go full screen? All right. I was told not to use the bottom part of my screen. Everybody can see the bottom part of the screen OK? All right. Because it's hard to make Vault not use the bottom part of the screen.

So I have custom objects. And when I create them, I have three in mine. I have contacts, drawing numbers, and tasks set up in mine. And when I create a new one, I'll create an RFQ here in a little bit when we go do configure one. But I just want to show you how to use them.

So here's my contacts. And if I want to create a new one, I right click and say new contact. And it brings up that dialog box. In my contacts, I don't have any assigned properties until I go to category. Right?

So I assign the category, and then it says, oh, well, they need to be in the department. So we'll make Milt have one. And he's with coolOrange. And he has his custom object right there. And he has no where used or no contents.

And if I want to edit him, I can edit my contact. And I can go in and do my update stuff right here in my dialog box, which is really nice. Because sometimes, you don't want people jacking over here in properties, because they mess stuff up.

That department wasn't required, so my OK button was always live. And drawing numbers, I right click, and I do a new drawing number. And the reason I'm switching to that one is because once I go to a drawing number category, then I have a scheme. I have a numbering scheme.

And so my drawing number grays everything out, because I require it to be sequential. And then I can put my properties in here. Again, none required, but are there. And it puts the drawing numbers in there.

All of this works the same as a file. So if I wanted to have different views up here, I can set different views and assign my customized my views. The categories, lifecycle states, all that work the same. I think in task, I have--

AUDIENCE: What about your [INAUDIBLE]?

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: No. Well, I don't think you can check them out.

AUDIENCE: It does check out then.

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: It does? What happens when you check it out? It doesn't do anything. Yeah. Yeah.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: You think? Well, let's go to one. Let's go link one. I don't think it does. Does it? Well, let's go find out. All right, let's go link a-- let's go.

Now you're going to take off me off script. That's OK. No, I got this. All right, this is good. So I'm copying this random file that I don't know where it came from. And I'm going to put it to paste that as a link.

Everybody see how I did that? I went to the file. I copied it. I went to the contents of the drawing numbers. And I said paste this link.

So now I have in this some contents. So what's in here, it's in the contents. And if I go to this file, go to folder, which is one of the nicest things about linking them, and it's where used, it will show its uses. Sorry.

It should be in where used? Shouldn't it? Probably have to refresh it. Should have showed up there. Why is it not showing up? Huh?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: I'm sorry?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Yeah, I was.

AUDIENCE: And that [INAUDIBLE].

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Oh, there you go. See? I learn something every day when I mess in this stuff, every day. Thank you. If I had swag, I would give you something. But I don't. Come to our booth. We'll give you some swag.

So it's there. So then the question was, what happens if I-- so this file's there. It's where used. And if I hit check out, what happens? Nothing. Still nothing. I don't think you can check out from that.

I can control-- what if I get? I shouldn't even be able to get it. I mean, there's nothing to get. Oh, let's see what I get. Nothing. You can get it, but there's nothing to get. Yeah, you can get nothing. You can get it. I didn't get anything, but--

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Yeah, but that would be cool though. So in the ideal station, somebody should put that in there that says, if a file is linked, and I do check out, it should give me the option to check out the files that are associated with it.

AUDIENCE: Then we have an introduction here.

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Well, let's see. So on the get? You're saying on the get?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: This one? That's comments. The check out? Include links. But I have files and everything included.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Yeah, still nothing though. Well, there it goes. There you go. Man, that would be really hard though. I mean, there's like 80 people in this room, and all of us were like, well, I didn't know you can do that. So still in the ideal station, I think that needs to be cleaned up. You know?

AUDIENCE: I feel bad [INAUDIBLE].

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: So you owe her right here something. Yeah. I hate to say no that you can't, because somebody like Milt's team would prove me wrong. But it would take a lot of custom programming to do it. So good.

Yeah. You could do some crazy stuff in the background to make that do it. Right. You could do some stuff like that. But yeah, so it would be yes.

I mean, what is it we say when we do customization, especially if you're somebody like me who makes money off that? We say, yes, we can do it. But sometimes, it's not supposed to be done that way.

So let me make sure that I did. So back to my task, I do have due dates and states. So I have lifecycle changes. So create my AU presentation is new, and I haven't updated my states, but I can.

Assuming I have the right securities, just like with the file, I can say that it's complete, because we're doing it. It was complete about 12 minutes ago. Right? We all do that. So it works just like-- now it's locked, and so I can't edit anymore, because it's complete.

So it does make it read only, just like a file, which I think is also cool. So if you don't want certain people in there jacking like your boss. You want them to leave that stuff alone. Yes, sir?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: No. It would be nice though if I had versioning in there, but no. Yeah, if you could see that history on them?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Yeah, there's no history on custom objects. I don't know why either, because that would be nice to be able to go back in time or see what changed or just see who marked it complete or who said it's started or whatever. But there's no history on custom objects. It's still fairly.

And until we get groups of people using it and asking questions, they're not going to put a lot of development time in it, just saying. Is there any Autodesk peoples in here? OK. So but that's my take on it. Until you start getting questions and a lot of people asking about it, then they're not going to keep-- if it's not used, if everybody in this room when I said, what is a custom object, and like three people went, I kind of know what it is, they're not going to put a lot of development into it until we do that. So absolutely.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Yes.

AUDIENCE: Can you rearrange [INAUDIBLE]?

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: Can I rearrange them?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

KIMBERLEY HENDRIX: I don't think so. What? There is a configure, show fewer, add or remove, change. That's change order list is actually change order not change the order of these buttons. But I don't see a way to do it.

I mean, I may be wrong, but not that I can see. I've never tried. But I see what you're saying, because I would rather have item master and change order up and then have all my custom stuff below it. But another ideal station. OK.

OK, so any questions about how you use them? Anybody? Comments, questions? How we doing on time? OK, halfway. I think I'm good. OK, back to PowerPoint. Death by PowerPoint. I'll try not to make it that way.

OK, next, let's configure one. So you do have to have administrator rights to configure a custom object. And you configure it the first time, and you say done, and nothing happens. Well, actually, there is little dialog box that comes up and says, you got log out and log back in. And then if you have data standards, you got to log out and log back in again and close it and open it like three times. Makes it all work, because it has to read a bunch of stuff into the UI.

So we're going to talk about how to do that. So just about like every other Vault administrative tax, and it is a Vaulted setting and not a global setting. So if you have 10 Vaults on your system, on your server, it will only affect the Vault that you're in. The data standard stuff goes across the board, if they're named the same between the different ones. And I'll get into that in a minute.

So tools, administration, Vault settings, the custom object tab. And in the custom object tab looks like that. It gives you a display name, and then the plural display name. I don't know why they can't just add that on there, but you have to type both in there.

And the plural is actually what shows up in your buttons. So if you want it to be named different, or you want it to have a space. I recommend don't giving this a space. It just jacks with stuff. Every time I've done it, I've regretted it, and nothing works right, and I have to finagle things. So don't give it a name.

If you want your plural display name to have a space bar in it, that's fine. It doesn't affect that. But this one is what, because this is what data standard uses is this field. And if there is a space, then it's just harder to program in there.

You can do the definition and security. I don't use this, because I'm a lifecycle person. It's like right clicking on a file and setting custom securities. Just don't do it. Just don't do it, because you'll hate yourself later.

And then I'm a real geek on icons. And so I always search my entire computer for the icon that I want that looks the best. And it doesn't matter what you use. And it doesn't matter that it's not on everybody's computer.

Because once it's configured, it's embedded. And it brings it in, and it doesn't matter. You can have some random one that you've downloaded or an ICO file that you've created or whatever. But it is what shows up over here on the side. And if you just use the custom one all the time, it gets kind of boring. And anyway, so I always use a little icon file.

And let's see, what am I doing there? Yeah, so then after you create your custom object, then you need to go in and figure out what categories and lifecycles and revisions and all that you want to assign to it. And that's done, and that's not what this class is about, but that's done just like it is for files.

Everybody comfortable with lifecycles, categories, revision schemes? Nodding heads. OK, it's kind of like the wave going on. All right, let's configure one. Have I lost anybody? We good so far? We want to see how to configure one?

OK, let's configure one. We're going to go to-- have to look up there-- tools, administration, Vault settings, click custom objects tab. We're going to configure one. You can see here's the ones that I have contact, drawing numbers, and task.

Let's create one called an RFQ. And what's plural of RFQ? RFQs with an S. Is that the plural of RFQ? OK.

We can use the default custom object, and it looks like that. It's really boring. Or we can search your files for icons. You can see I do that a lot. We'll just call it that one. I don't even know what that is, but we'll have it that just so it's different.

OK, so RFQs. And you won't see this until you log in the next time. And that's it. That was exciting, right? Because that is all there is to configuring that.

And then before I log out and log in, I'm going to go through my categories. Behaviors, categories, and there is a whole custom object categories here. And we'll create a new one, and we'll call it RFQ. And anybody's favorite color? Let's go with orange.

RFQ, and make that available. And let's go ahead and assign just a simple release process to that. Make it the default. And let's create properties. You hit edit.

And I can use properties in here. So like description, I can just map it. I don't have to create a new one. It can be the same one. I can use it for RFQ. And I can use project.

Does it bother anybody else that when you go into properties, they're not sorted by property name at first? Just a pet peeve of mine. Let's add the properties, project file. All right.

And then over here in project, for RFQ, let's make it required just for fun. And I'll have the same priority. What? All right, it doesn't let me do that. I'll create another one. Let's see.

Now I'm blank. What property name do I want on there? Territory. And territory is an RFQ. And we'll make it required. We should mark it. There we go. OK.

Close. Close. Close. And I don't have RFQs over here, because I haven't logged out. It says log out works, but I always restart it. I don't know. Just what I do.

It tells me it successfully loaded it. And then it says, if you have data standard dialogues, you need to restart it again. But I don't have RFQ data standards ones. And here's my RFQs. Nothing special, just an empty place for me to put them. And that's all there is to configure those in there.

So let's go back to that and play. OK, any questions about configuring one? I have done nothing with data standard. So if I go-- let me get back in there. If I go here, I don't have a right click option to create one, because that's part of data standard. But I do have a new button here, and I can hit new. And all I get's the name, so AU 2017. That's all I get.

And all my properties are over here. Why don't I have my properties that I created on here? Anybody? Come on. Come on Vault 101. Why don't I have my properties I just created for RFQs? It's not in the category.

That's the other thing about using data standard for it is it automatically lets you select the category. And there's my properties. And it's like yelling at me because I said territory is required, but it didn't stop me from making it.

And see if I was using a data standard, the dialog box, it would stop me from making that, which we'll try to add live here in a second. I'll probably screw it up. OK, any questions so far, anybody? All right. I'm not terribly boring you. I've only had a handful of people leave. We're doing good. OK.

Data standards and custom objects. So three things it requires to add data standards. Well, I should say four. First off, you have to install data standard. Data standard is a client side installation. It is not server side. It has to be installed and modified on every client's computer. That's the downside.

You can create some scripts to update dialogs and stuff like that for your logins, but it is every client computer. And no, you can't point it to a network location for your XAML and PowerShell script files. So it has to be on the local C drive or on the local computer, installed locally, but you can do scripts to copy in from a network location, which is what I do when I do it. So install it, manage it that way.

Many entries for the create and edit dialog is in an XML file, which we'll get to. The dialog files are in an XAML file. Anybody ever worked in an XAML file, besides maybe Jeff back there? You worked in XAML? OK.

There is some help in the Vault help that lets you set up Visual Studio to work on XAML files, and I highly recommend that unless you're just really geeky and you can just do it in text editor. I'm real close, but I'm not quite that geeky.

Scripting files are done in PowerShell. PS1 files, PowerShell scripts. Anybody work in PowerShell scripts? Very powerful inside of Vault. OK. Those are the three things required after it's installed to make it work.

So now we're going to get a little geeky on you here. So this the menu files is the menu definitions XML. And to create a new one, so remember I said, once you install it, it automatically puts the stuff in there for a custom object called task? So if you create a custom object on your Vault at home and you call it task and you've installed data standard, it all just magically works after you restart Vault twice.

And so that's the cool thing about it, because it is all preconfigured. So this section here, the new task and the edit task, is already there for you. And the command site is already there for you. It just calls task.

So you have to go in and copy this line. And the XML, depending on what kind of XML editor you're using, if you're using Notepad, it's one line. If you're using XML notepad, it's different fields. Or whatever you're using, you got to copy this section and create change everything from task to RFQ.

Same thing with the edit. You need to copy that and change everything from task to RFQ. And then in the same file, you have to go down to the command site and copy the task one and rename everything to that. And no, I'm not going to talk to my daughter in the middle of my class.

OK, so that's the three things that we have to do in the menu definitions XML file. And it is located in program data, Autodesk, Vault, whatever version you're using, extensions, data standard, et cetera. So that's where that file is at.

And again, remember, it's on everybody's machine. OK? So once you do it, you have to create that and put it out on some network place where everybody can download that and copy it over. OK.

So the next one is the XAML file. And what I'm showing you here is this is in Visual Studio. Because if you do it in a text editor, well, it's not even color coded, but it looks like this. And you have to be like not me to be able to just do it in here. But this gives you a GUI. But there is some setup in Visual Studio to make that happen. But the Vault help has that. And when I update the handout, I'll put a link to that for you.

Also, my friends at coolOrange have a really good blog on data standard stuff and examples in there and code that they just give you for free. I don't know how they make money, but they just give you all that code for free. So go out to their blog. That's my two cents for them, because I learn a lot from them. So go out there and look at that.

So these are in that folder for the configurations, also in program data, extensions, data standard, Vault, configuration. If you go into that folder after you've installed, there'll be a Vault and a CAD, and then there's folders underneath there. But for what we're doing in here, we're just talking about the Vault one.

You can copy the custom objects example. Always start with that. There's some embedded stuff in there. Don't try to create it fresh. It won't work, and you'll be frustrated. So start with that one.

But just so you know, you can just use that one. That's the reason it's called custom objects XAML and not task XAML. Every custom object can use that same file.

Because unless you need to add some crazy custom stuff to it, usually, that dialog box is just fine. And you can just point your stuff, your menu items to that XAML file. But if you want to customize it and add other cool stuff, then start with the custom objects XAML and copy it and rename it. And be sure that the references between those three places that I talked about a second ago all point to the same PowerShell scripts, XAML files, and menu edit. They all have to match.

Did you have a question? No, OK. And then so you can edit it there. But if you're just doing your first one, I would suggest just playing with that one for the first one.