Recalling an Old Filename for a File Renamed in Autodesk Vault

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill

One of the nicest functions of Autodesk Vault is the ability to rename a file easily, as well as track the versions of files, and the history of files. 

But what happens if after renaming a file, it becomes necessary to recall the previous name?

Fortunately, Vault as a field designed for just this purpose.

It's called: File Name (Historical)

When this file is added to the Preview Pane in Vault, the old file name (before it was renamed) will be seen.

Now that we know that, how is the field added to Vault Explorer?

First, right click on the title bar in the Preview Pane, and choose Customize View.  Don't use the Browser Pane.  This one only shows the current file, and it's the files in the past we're after.

Customizing the view

Once the dialog box appears, click on the Fields icon.

Click on the Fields icon

Locate the File Name (Historical) field and add it to the title bar.

Locate the field and click Add

The field will move to the right column

 Once the field shows in the dialog box, click OK to close the dialog box, and click Close on the dialog box after that.

The and the field will now show in the title bar.

The field showing in the pane

But since the file "8 Sided Die.ipt" only has one version, there isn't much to see.  However, now I'm going to rename the file to "D8.ipt" to match the naming convention for the other dice I have in Vault (D4.ipt for a 4 sided die, D6. for a 6 sided die, etc.)

To rename the file, I'm going to right click on it, and choose Rename, and step through the wizard to rename the file.

Right clicking to rename the file.

To see all the details for renaming a file in Autodesk Vault, they can be found in my earlier post here.

Once the file is renamed, I'll see two lines in the Preview Pane.  The File Name column will show the current file name, but the File Name (Historical) field will show what the name of the file was before! 

The history is visible, right there!

And for one last tip, try searching for the old file name.  Since Vault still remembers the history, the file can still be located by the old file name!

Searching by the old file name

And now, for the same steps in a video version, take a look at the video below!

<iframe width="545" height="409" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/A1GbPbtn7zo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And on a final note, if you're interested in the dice models that are used in this example.  You can find them at my GrabCAD site here!