Vault Search Tokens

Posted on September 11, 2018 by Vault Application Specialist, Joseph Corson
The way Autodesk Vault searches can be confusing at times. You perform a search for “ABC-123” expecting to return only files with ABC-123 in that order, but instead you get files with ABC after 123, and many values between them. What’s going on here?

Vault Tokens

Autodesk Vault token-izes all property values. What exactly is a token? Tokens are the individual groups of a property’s value. This process allows Vault to find files based on pieces of information and allows for faster searches.

Breakdown

Alphabetic: ABC…
Numeric: 123…
Special Characters: $-_@+#
No other special characters are searchable inside of the Vault
Example file name: ABC-#123-DEF.idw
Tokens in file name above:

• ABC
• –
• #
• 123
• –
• DEF
• Idw

Scenario 1

If you have a filename of “Drawing1.iam,” this would be broken down to “Drawing,” “1,” and “iam.” Therefore, if searching for “Dra,” you would not find this file. You would need to search for “Drawing” or add a wildcard such as “Dra*.” These 2 searches will yield the results you are seeking.

Scenario 2

If you have a filename of “SYN-1234-LAY.idw,” you can search for “SYN, 1234, LAY,” or “idw” and you will return this file, but you will also return any other file that has these tokens in the properties. If you search for “SYN-1234,” you will return any files with the tokens of “SYN” and “1234.” By default, the results will show any files with “SYN” and “1234,” even files that are like “EDS-1234-SYN.ipt.” As you see, the “SYN” is after the “1234.” You might not want to see these results, so there is a ‘Slop Factor’ on the server that can be modified. I will go over this in my next blog post, so stay tuned!
This tip will help you understand how searching works and will hopefully improve your Vault searches in the future.