The Vault Browser, a page on the Vault Manager dialog, allows you to examine the contents of your Vault, including the Virtual Folder structure and to see what items are currently checked out. The actions you can carry out in this Browser will depend on your Vault user permissions.
Shortcuts
Default Keys:
Default Menu: File - Vault Manager
Command: Vault Manager
Using the dialog
Virtual Folder tree
The left-hand part of the dialog shows a Virtual Folder ‘tree’ which you can use to look at the items stored in the Vault.
The Virtual Folder tree acts just like the one you see in Windows Explorer. The folders can be expanded/contracted using the plus/minus buttons to show or hide the contents of a folder.
If you right click on an item or folder in the tree, the context menu will offer you a list of actions depending on the type of item you have selected and the permissions granted to your Vault user.
Listing items
To the right of the folder tree are some controls that show information about items in the Vault. At the top is the main ‘item’ grid which will show you the items in the folder currently selected in the Virtual Folder tree, the items resulting from a Search, or the item being viewed when ‘drilling down’ into an item displayed in the lower ‘details’ grid.
An additional Status column can be displayed showing the current status of each Vault item. It is enabled by the Enable Status option in the Vault Setup - Options dialog. An item’s status can be changed by using the Status context menu command described below.
When you select an item in the Vault Items grid details about that item will be displayed in the lower Item Details grid. Exactly what gets displayed there will depend on the type of item you have selected, and the setting on the Item Details drop-down list.
Saved Searches
You can quickly load a saved search using the drop down list to the left of the search button. The contents of this drop down can be changed from within the Search Dialog. Selecting a blank entry will reset the current search criteria.
Refers To
Selecting this mode will show you all the items used by the selected one, for example all the Parts and Footprints used by a Design file, or all the Footprints, Symbols and Associated Parts used by a Part. This mode can be useful for getting an overview of the revisions of all the library items used by a particular file.
Note: the application can only display Where Used and Refers To information for items that have been checked into the Vault with the appropriate setting for cross-referencing between items. This is described in more detail on the page for the Options page of the Vault Setup dialog.
In the example shown above, you can see that the selected Part references a PCB Footprint and two Schematic Symbols.
Where Used
Selecting this mode for the Item Details view will show you all the places in the Vault where the selected item is used. You can use this, for example, to quickly find all the Parts which use a particular Footprint, or even all the Designs that use a specific Part.
Audit Trail
This shows the history of the selected item, including the timestamp, revision number and the user who made each change. The list will include all actions recorded for this item in the Vault audit trail, including adding it to the Vault for the first time, Checking Out, and other actions.
Show a different Revision
The Revision drop-down list allows a revision other than the latest one to be chosen for the current Vault Item.
If you are showing Refers To or Where Used details then the grid will change to show only information specific to the selected revision.
As the Audit Trail information always covers all of an item’s revision history, in this mode selecting a different revision will only change the preview. Clicking on an Audit Trail item in the grid will automatically select the revision relevant to that entry.
Context Menu Commands - Vault Items
Right clicking on an item in the Vault Items grid will display a context menu showing those of the options listed below that are relevant to that type of item:
Move Selected Item
This will display the Choose Folder For Move dialog from where you can select the destination folder. On completion, the item will be moved into the new folder.
Delete Selected Item
This will remove the selected item from the Vault. A confirmation dialog is displayed. Once deleted, the deletion cannot be undone.
Check Out Selected Item
This will display the Check Out Library Item Dialog or the Check Out Design Item Dialog depending on whether a design or library item is selected. From there, you can complete the steps to check out the selected item.
Copy Out Selected Item
This will display the Copy Out Library Item Dialog or the Copy Out Design Item Dialog depending on whether a design or library item is selected. From there, you can complete the steps to copy out the selected item.
Show Attributes
Selecting this will display the Attribute Editor. From there, you can view all the attributes present on the selected item or items. This context menu option is only available for Footprints, and Parts.
Update References to Selected Item
This will display the Update Cross References Dialog. From there, you can view and update any of the cross references that the item has. This context menu option is only available for Footprints, Schematic Symbols, and Parts.
Item Permissions
This will display the Vault Item Permissions Dialog. From there, you can view and change this item’s permissions. This context menu option is only available for Vault databases using format 1007 or higher.
Status
This will display the Vault Item Status dialog. From there, you can view and change this item’s status. This context menu option is only available for Vault databases using format 1007 or higher with the Enable Status option in Vault Setup - Options.
Context Menu Commands - Item Details
Right clicking on an item in the Item Details grid will display a context menu showing those of the options listed below that are relevant to that type of item:
Show ‘Where Used’
This will effectively ‘drill down’ into the selected item making it the item displayed in the Vault Items grid above and the Item Details grid will then show Where Used details for that item.
Show ‘Refers To’
This will effectively ‘drill down’ into the selected item making it the item displayed in the Vault Items grid above and the Item Details grid will then show Refers To details for that item.
Delete Version
This option is only available when showing the Audit Trail and allows the particular version of the vault item, to which the row refers, to be deleted while leaving other versions remaining in the vault. Note that it is currently not possible to delete just the latest version of an item while there are still previous versions of the item remaining in the vault.
Vault Actions
To the right of the Vault Items grid are a set of buttons for performing actions either on the selected item or the vault as a whole:
| Search… | Displays the Vault Search dialog allowing filtering and sorting of vault items |
| Move… | Move the selected vault item(s) to different vault folder. |
| Delete… | Delete the selected item(s) from the vault. |
| Check Out… | Get an editable copy of the selected item(s) from the vault. |
| Copy Out… | Get an read only copy of the selected item(s) from the vault. |
| Uncheck… | Cancel that the selected item(s) is checked out from the vault. |
| Reports… | Displays the Vault Report dialog. |
| View… | This enables you to display the design in the design editor in view only mode. |
Appropriate actions are also available via a context menu, displayed on right clicking on an item or selection of items in the Vault Items grid. In addition to those shown above the actions described below will also be available when appropriate for the selected vault items.
| Update References to Selected Item | Displays the Vault Update Cross References dialog which allows references from one vault item to another to be checked and if necessary brought up to date to the latest version, for example the Footprints and Schematic Symbols referenced by a Part. Normally this is done as part of the Check In process, but this menu option also allows it to be done any time after a new revision has been added. |
Previews
The preview windows will be used to display previews of Symbols and Footprints used by the selected Part item.
When an attribute is marked as a Hyperlink, it will be displayed ‘blue’. If you double-click an attribute hyperlink, it will open the hyperlink. Alternatively, if you select the attribute and right click anywhere within the attributes list, it will give you a context menu with the command Execute Hyperlink which will open it as well.
Technology File
A Technology File can be defined for the display in the Preview windows and for when editing the Footprint or Schematic Symbol in their respective editors. This works the same way as if edited from the Library Manager.
When an attribute is marked as a Hyperlink, it will be displayed ‘blue’. If you double-click an attribute hyperlink, it will open the hyperlink. Alternatively, if you select the attribute and right click anywhere within the attributes list, it will give you a context menu with the command which will open it as well.
Reports
Press the Reports button to generate a report for the items in the browser list. See the Vault Reports help page for more details on formatting and running vault reports.
Window Splitters
Splitter controls are available in the Browser page to adjust the sizes of the items grid, details grid, design previews and attributes list. These are indicated when you hover your cursor over the double ‘splitter’ lines. These sizes are saved to the registry when the page is closed and loaded when it is opened.
Related Topics
Vault Overview | Signing in | Groups and Permissions | Users
Related Topics
Browser | Libraries to Vault | Designs to Vault | Generic Files to Vault | Audit Trail | Import Vault Libraries | Export Vault Libraries