Getting familiar with properties and behaviors

Getting familiar with properties and behaviors - Exercise

To access Property Definition

Create, edit, and delete user-defined properties (UDPs) on the Properties Definition dialog.

1. Select Tools > Administration > Vault Settings.
   
   
   
   
2. In the Vault Settings dialog, click the Behaviors tab.
3. In the Properties section, click Properties.
4. On the Property Definitions dialog, you can:
   • Click New to create a user-defined property.
   • Select a property and then click Edit to modify a property definition.
   • Select a user-defined property and then click Delete to remove the user-defined property.
5. Click the Settings tab to view the settings for the selected property. The settings displayed in the tab vary depending on the type of property selected.
   
   

Create a user-defined property

Create new user-defined properties (UDP) to help customize property mapping and write back preferences.

Note: You must have administrative access to perform these tasks.

1. Click Tools > Administration > Vault Settings.
2. On the Vault Settings dialog box Behaviors tab, click Properties.
3. In the property Definitions dialog box, click New.
4. In the New property dialog box, enter a name.
   
   
   
   
5. In the Type list, select the property type.
6. Assign the UDP to one or more categories by selecting the category check boxes in the Associations drop-down list.
   
   

On the Settings tab, some property settings are populated with values determined by the Name and Type entries from the previous steps.

Define list values

On the Settings tab, select the Initial Value row. Depending on the type of the property, the cell on the right becomes a modifiable field, a drop-down list with existing values, or a drop-down list with values you can add.

1. Perform one of these tasks:
   • If the property is type text, enter a value and proceed to the last step.
   • If the property is type boolean or date, select the appropriate value and proceed to the last step.
   • If the field is a drop-down list for which you can create values, Click (...) and proceed to the next step.
2. In the List property dialog pane, click in the List Values list and enter a name for the new value. Continue to add values to complete the list.
3. Click OK to close the List property dialog box and return to the New property dialog box.
4. Click OK on the New (Property) dialog.

Note:

• Once a property definition is created, the name and data type cannot be modified.
• For detailed instructions refer to product documentation: Vault 2025 Help | Properties Administration | Autodesk.

Edit properties in Vault Client (Main View)

Edit file properties from the main view of the Vault Client.

Note: You must be assigned the role of either Editor or Administrator to perform this action. Contact your Vault administrator to verify your role.

1. Select a file or files from the main pane and select Ctrl+E.
2. The Property Editing dialog lists the file or files that were selected. Click Add to include other files from the vault.
   
   
   
   To exclude a file that was selected, select it from the list and then click Remove.
3. The Name, Author, and Description properties are displayed for the selected files by default. Click Select Properties to select additional properties to edit for the files.
   
   Note: When using Select Columns to display in the Edit Properties screen, existing properties can be removed from the list. If a field is removed that contains edited properties, any changes you made are lost. You are prompted to verify the removal of the field before continuing.
4. To edit the property values:
   • Double-click on a cell to edit the value.
   • Right-click on a cell to copy or paste a value.
   • Click and drag the small black square in the lower right corner of a highlighted cell to fill multiple cells in a column or columns with the same value.
   • Right-click on a cell and then select Find to search the property values for a specific string. In the Find and Replace dialog box, enter a text string to locate and then click Find Next to move from one occurrence to the next.
   • Right-click on a cell and the select Replace to search for a specific string and replace it with a new value. In the Find and Replace dialog box, enter a text string to locate and a replacement value. Click Find Next repeatedly until you locate the specific occurrence you want to replace with the new value and the click Replace or click Replace All to replace every occurrence with the new value.
   • Right-click on a cell and then select Capitalize to use all uppercase characters for the value.
     
     Note: The new value for a property must be the proper data type for the property value. If a new value is not the proper data type for the property, the entry is flagged as incorrect.
5. Select OK.
6. The selected files are copied to a temporary location on the local computer, checked out, the properties are updated, and then the files are checked back in to the vault. A progress bar indicates the user-defined properties are being updated. Click Cancel to stop the process. If Cancel is clicked after some files have been checked back into the vault, those files will contain the edited properties. Any files not checked in will not contain the edited properties.
7. The Property Edit Results screen summarizes the property edits for each file and which properties were edited successfully.