Origin Energy: Autodesk Vault Data Transfer

Origin Energy Autodesk Vault Transfer

Background

Origin Energy is a leading company in energy exploration and production, power generation and retailing. It is one of the leading providers of energy to homes and businesses in Australia [1].

In 2009 Origin Energy identified the need to move all its engineering drawings from different data management systems located on geographically distributed data servers to Autodesk Vault.

Overall Data Transfer project was split into three parts:

  • Data Transfer from SmartTeam,
  • Data Transfer from shared folders with Drawing Title Block indexing, and
  • Data Transfer from Objective.

Origin Energy Project Requirements

All three projects had specific requirements with a common aim to:

  • Create a collaborative environment for all design units across the business
  • Allow for concurrent design changes and storing typical design projects for future use
  • Allow for simple and centralised administration of engineering data
  • Allow access to different engineering units located on various geographically distributed sites.

Autodesk Vault Benefits

  1. Ability to rapidly find and reuse data.
  2. Simple administration and configuration.
  3. Improved teamwork and collaborative design.
  4. Automated release and change processes.
  5. Concurrent design changes and automation.

Origin Energy Data Transfer Challenges

Data Transfer Tool is a efficient and fast data migration approach that has been developed using many years work with large organizations and a range of stakeholders.

  • Time and Cost: a specific timeframe and cost-saving needed to be met.
  • Dataset: a large dataset located in different systems on different sites.
  • Documents Revisions: necessity to migrate documents with versions, metadata and links.
  • Data Sorting: the need to check, sort and identify the latest versions of the engineering drawings by scanning data from different locations.
  • Business Disruption: perform Training and User Acceptance Testing prior to final data transfer.
  • Training: perform Training and User Acceptance Testing prior to final data transfer.

Solution: Data Transfer Tool

Data Transfer Tool is a efficient and fast data migration approach that has been developed using many years work with large organizations and a range of stakeholders.

  • Business Needs: a streamlined holistic process to configure Autodesk Vault to mirrors company engineering processes and addresses company needs.
  • Data Cleaning: automated, fast and efficient way of preparing and cleaning your data for upload to Autodesk Vault.
  • Testing & Tuning: an automated way to Autodesk Vault configuration, its testing and fine tuning.
  • Collaboration: encompasses collaborative consultation with stakeholders at all stages of Autodesk Vault implementation.
  • Fast Data Upload: data upload to Autodesk Vault over a single weekend of a dataset of any size.
  • Training: includes processes for end users testing & acceptance and training.
Project 1: Transfer from SmartTeam

Eraring Power Station is the largest power station in Australia.

Engineering Group used SmartTeam to manage its engineering data. SmarTeam is a PDM / PLM (Product Design Manual / Product Lifecycle Management) system developed by Dassault Systèmes. It was primarily used to store the AutoCAD files.

Due to the lack of support and significant maintenance overhead Origin Energy decided to replace it with Autodesk Vault. At the same time Autodesk Vault enabled more efficient management of DWG files due to native integration with AutoCAD.

Autodesk Vault Data Migration
  • More than 150,000 files (87,000 documents including versions) transferred with associated metadata (document properties)
  • Replicated the original folder structure
  • All AutoCAD drawings have been scanned to restore file dependencies and report missing xRefs.
  • Assigned new Vault Categories and Lifecycles. SmarTeam document states mapped to new Vault Lifecycle states.
  • SmarTeam revisions converted into Vault revisions
  • After an extensive user acceptance testing and training the data transferred over a weekend keeping to the absolute minimum disruption to the business
Project 2: Transfer from Shared Folders with Drawing Title Block Indexing

This project was focused on consolidation of drawing registers and improvement of documents search and management practices for Shoalhaven Hydro Pump Storage Scheme.

Autodesk Vault Data Migration
  • 15,000 files transferred, mostly raster scans of hand drawings and microfilm
  • 600 duplicates removed by automated data cleansing system
  • Drawing register and document properties copied from MS Access databases
  • 10,000 raster documents indexed (title block and revision history information extracted and copied into Vault file properties)
  • Power Plant KKS indexes assigned to improve search
  • Assigned new Vault Categories and Lifecycles
  • Revisions normalised and mapped to standard alphabetic and numeric revision schemes
  • After an extensive user acceptance testing and training the data transferred over a weekend keeping to the absolute minimum disruption to the business
Project 3: Transfer from Objective

The primary goal of this project was to continue consolidation of drawings to provide effective access to the data for all users, reduce cost of licensing and IT infrastructure maintenance related to Objective.

Objective was a legacy document management system used prior to Origin Energy migrating to OpenText.

Autodesk Vault Data Migration
  • 35,000 of Objective documents (38,000 files including historic versions) converted into Vault files
  • Objective folder structure has been transformed into a Vault folders structure
  • Document revision history preserved
  • Document metadata copied into the Vault file properties
  • Audit trail migrated
  • Assigned new Vault Categories and Lifecycles
  • Revisions normalised and mapped to standard alphabetic and numeric revision schemes
  • After an extensive user acceptance testing and training the data transferred over a weekend keeping to the absolute minimum disruption to the business