Can Autodesk Vault serve as an asset owner's document control system?

Vault is product data management for a design team, and it is strong at that job. It holds work in progress, keeps assembly and xref relationships intact when files are renamed or moved, and runs items and engineering change orders in Vault Professional. An owner's document control system has a different shape. It holds the issued record across every building, plant, and network for decades, stays readable by operations, facilities, contractors, and auditors who never open a CAD application, and carries scanned drawings from long before anyone ran Vault. Owners generally keep Vault where the design work happens and hold the controlled record on a system built for the operating life of the asset.

What is the difference between Lunr and Autodesk Vault?

The difference is where the record lives, who keeps it running, and who can reach it. Vault is a client-server application: the Autodesk Data Management Server and a Microsoft SQL Server database on Windows Server, patched and upgraded by your team, with a Windows client on each workstation and a read-only Thin Client in the browser. Autodesk does not sell Vault as a hosted service, so running it on Azure or AWS is still your own deployment. Lunr is hosted in Australia or the US and reached through a browser, so drawings, models, and Office files open on any operating system with nothing installed. Vault holds the advantage at the CAD desk. Lunr holds it across the rest of the organisation.

Can Autodesk Vault search the text inside a scanned drawing?

Not on its own. Autodesk's documentation states that by default, textual content is not indexed, and that once the Content Indexing Service is enabled, a full content search finds a text string within a known file type. That covers files already carrying text, and it comes with the caveat that a multi-site vault returns only files at the local site. A scanned sheet is an image, so there is nothing for the index to read. Lunr runs OCR and AI full-text search across everything you store, so a valve tag on a 1994 scan turns up as fast as a file saved this morning, and Deep XRAY re-reads a dense drawing in high-resolution tiles so faint or crowded text still resolves.

How does moving off Autodesk Vault work, and does the revision history come across?

The team has migrated organisations off Autodesk Vault before, and the shape is the same every time. Solution design workshops settle the numbering, the metadata, and the asset hierarchy, and map every Vault property to its destination in Lunr. A full sandbox migration then loads your own documents, metadata, and revision history, with reconciliation counts against the source, and it reruns until you sign it off. Revision history comes across in full: every earlier revision is loaded and marked as superseded, so you inherit the history rather than a snapshot of migration day. The production cutover finishes with a delta pass, and Vault keeps running read-only for as long as you want the fallback.

fig. 01 · autodesk vault alternative

An Autodesk Vault alternative for the owner’s record.

For the asset owners and document controllers who hold the record once the drawing is issued. Put every DWG, DGN, RVT, and scanned sheet under revision control, search the words printed inside a 1994 scan, and open any drawing in a browser tab, with no Windows Server, no SQL Server, and no Windows client to deploy. Keep Vault where the CAD work happens.

Book a demo View a drawing in the browser

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail

fig. 02 · where Vault fits

Vault is product data management, and it is good at it.

Vault holds design data while the work is in progress. It puts add-ins inside Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, and Civil 3D, keeps assembly and xref relationships intact when a file is renamed or moved, and runs items and engineering change orders in Vault Professional. A design office releasing CAD data, on Windows, from its own server room, is the case Vault was built around.

The claim here is narrow. It is about the record after the drawing is issued, and about who has to reach it: operations, facilities, contractors, and auditors, for the decades you run the asset.

Read why teams move CAD drawings to a controlled cloud record

Keep Vault forCAD at the design desk

Work-in-progress CAD data management, with Vault add-ins inside Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, and Civil 3D.
File relationships across an assembly, so renaming or moving a file repairs the parent drawings and xrefs pointing at it.
Copy Design, which clones an assembly with its drawings and heals the references as it goes.
Items, engineering change orders, and ERP integration in Vault Professional, for a team releasing product data.

fig. 03 · the walls

Where an owner hits the edge of a CAD data management server.

Each point below is drawn from Autodesk’s own published system requirements, help documentation, and support articles, so your IT department can check every one of them. Together they describe what an owner carries to make the drawing record reachable.

01The record sits behind a server estate you run. Vault is a client-server application: the Autodesk Data Management Server with a Microsoft SQL Server database, on Windows Server. Autodesk does not sell Vault as a hosted service and does not host Vault servers, so the hardware, the patching, the backups, and the SQL licences are yours to carry.

02The full client is Windows. Autodesk's published Vault client requirements list Windows 10 and Windows 11 Professional or Enterprise, so a document controller on a Mac, or an engineer with an iPad on site, works outside the client everyone else uses.

03The browser client is read-only. Autodesk describes the Vault Thin Client as read-only features for viewing and sharing Vault data in a web browser. Checking a file in, moving it through a lifecycle, or approving it needs a Vault Professional or Vault Office entitlement, so wide participation across an owner's organisation becomes a licensing decision.

04Search inside file content is off until you turn it on, and it only reads text. Autodesk's documentation states that by default, textual content is not indexed, and that a full content search then finds a text string within a known file type. A scanned sheet is an image with no text to index, and in a multi-site vault a full content search returns only files at the local site.

05Vault is organised around the design office, not the estate. Its vocabulary is check-in and check-out, item masters, and engineering change orders, which suits a team releasing product data. An owner's record is organised around the issued drawing: transmittals in and out, as-constructed handover, and one register spanning every building, plant, and network held.

06The edition bundled with your CAD may not be the one you need. Vault Basic comes with Autodesk subscriptions such as the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection and covers version control and file management, while lifecycles, revision workflows, items, change orders, replication, and the Thin Client belong to Vault Professional. Autodesk publishes deployment guidance for running Vault on Azure or AWS, along with the configurations it does not support, and either way that cloud deployment is still your own to build and maintain.

fig. 04 · side by side

Vault and Lunr, capability by capability.

A factual read of what each system does across the life of a drawing. The two are not rivals on every row. Vault holds the advantage while the drawing is being designed. Lunr holds it once the drawing is issued and the rest of the organisation needs to read, search, and control the record.

Capability	On Autodesk Vault	On Lunr
CAD data management at the designer's desk	Add-ins inside Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, and Civil 3D	Not an authoring add-in; issued drawings arrive by connector, upload, or transmittal
Repairing references when a CAD file is renamed or moved	Yes, Vault updates the parent files and xrefs	Validates each incoming package and reports missing xrefs at handover
Where the record sits	Your Windows Server, or your own Azure or AWS deployment	Hosted in Australia or the US, in the region you require
Servers needed to run the record	Windows Server with Microsoft SQL Server	None, the record runs in the browser
Workstation requirements to check a drawing in	Windows 10 or 11 Professional or Enterprise	A browser, on any operating system
Working in the browser	Thin Client, read-only	Viewing, markup, workflow, and search, all in the browser
What a person is allowed to do	Set by Vault Professional or Vault Office entitlement	Every capability standard, for everyone you grant access
Full-text search inside scanned drawings	Content indexing is off by default and reads text in known file types	XRAY reads every sheet, and Deep XRAY re-scans a dense drawing tile by tile
Word and Excel files	Stored and versioned as files in the vault	Opened natively in Rift Word and Rift Excel, with no Office licence
3D models and point clouds	Inventor and other supported models in the browser viewer	Models in Foundry, point clouds in Nimbus
A controlled register across the whole estate	Vaults organised around design projects and product data	One register over every building, plant, and network you hold
Getting a new release	You plan, test, and apply each upgrade	Applied continuously, nothing for your team to schedule

Vault rows describe Vault Basic and Vault Professional as published by Autodesk. Vault Workgroup was discontinued, and Vault Workgroup 2023 is its last release.

fig. 05 · nothing to install

Open a DWG, DGN, or RVT in a browser tab, on any machine.

In Vault, taking part means the Windows client, because the browser Thin Client is read-only. In Lunr the Rift viewer renders DWG, DGN, and PDF at full fidelity, with layers, measurement, and markup, in the browser. Models open in Foundry, point clouds in Nimbus, on a laptop, a tablet, or a phone in the field.

View DWG, DGN, RVT, and PDF in the browser, with no CAD licence and nothing to install.
Toggle layers, measure to the drawing's own scale, and mark up with a revision cloud.
Work on macOS, Windows, a tablet, or a phone, without a supported-client list to police.
Give operations, facilities, and contractors access without a client deployment.

browser viewers · layers · measurement · markup · no client install

Try the viewers

A drawing open in Lunr's Rift viewer in a browser tab, showing the sheet with its panel rail and viewer toolbar, with no Windows client required.

fig. 06 · search

Search the words printed inside a scanned drawing.

An owner inherits decades of scanned sheets. Autodesk’s documentation states that by default, textual content is not indexed in a vault, and that a full content search then finds a text string within a known file type, which leaves an image of a drawing with nothing to read. XRAY runs OCR and AI full-text search across everything you store, so a valve tag from a 1994 scan turns up as fast as a file you saved this morning. For a dense drawing, Deep XRAY re-reads the sheet in high-resolution tiles, so faint or crowded text still resolves.

OCR and AI full-text search across every DWG, DGN, RVT, PDF, and scanned image.
Find a tag, a reference, or a note printed inside the drawing, not just the file name.
Deep XRAY re-scans a dense sheet tile by tile, so nothing on the drawing is missed.
Filter by tag and metadata, or find geo-tagged drawings on a map with polygon search.

OCR · AI full-text search · deep XRAY tile re-scan · tag and map filters

See how XRAY search works Read about drawing OCR

Lunr's XRAY search returning drawings matched on text found inside the sheets, scanned drawings included, with metadata and revision shown for each result.

fig. 07 · handover

Take handover on the record, and catch the missing reference.

Vault keeps references intact inside the design office. The owner’s risk arrives with the package: a set booked in with an xref or a raster underlay left behind, which nobody notices until someone opens the drawing for maintenance years later. Lunr interrogates each incoming change request, validates the package against its manifest, and reports missing external references before the drawings become the record.

Validate each incoming package against its manifest, so a missing as-constructed is caught on delivery.
Report missing external references on upload, before the drawings are booked in.
Issue tracked transmittals out, and run change requests that hold, forward, and close.
Keep a full audit trail behind every approval, revision, and change on the controlled record.

manifest validation · missing xref detection · transmittals · full audit trail

See handover and transmittals Read about missing xrefs at handover

Lunr's document activity view, showing an audit trail of transmittals, workflow transitions, and metadata changes on a controlled drawing.

fig. 08 · the drawing register

One register across the estate, configured by your own team.

Vault organises data around the design project and the product being released. An owner’s register runs across every building, plant, and network held, for the whole operating life. Book a drawing in and Lunr numbers it, keeps its full revision history, and marks the previous revision as superseded, with title-block fields carried across as searchable metadata.

A controlled register across every asset, showing the current revision and status of each sheet.
Automatic document and version numbering, applied in your register format as drawings are booked in.
Configurable review and approval workflows, with tag-based permissions your team sets.
Superseded revisions kept and marked, so the current sheet is never in doubt.

estate register · automatic numbering · configurable workflows · superseded marking

See document control

A drawing's metadata and workflow panel in Lunr, showing title-block fields such as drawing number, revision, and discipline held as searchable metadata.

fig. 09 · moving across

Move the record first, retire the servers after.

Nothing is ripped out on day one. Design the mapping, run a full sandbox migration you sign off, test it with your own document controllers, then cut over on your date. Vault keeps running until the record is proven in Lunr, and the Windows and SQL estate retires after cut over instead of before it.

01
Design the mapping
Solution design workshops settle the numbering, the metadata, and the asset hierarchy, and map every Vault property to its destination in Lunr. Nothing moves before the mapping is signed off.
02
Run a sandbox migration
The team extracts from Vault and loads a full migration into a sandbox, so you see your own documents, your own metadata, and your own revision history. Reconciliation counts prove every source document is accounted for, and the mappings are corrected and rerun until you sign them off.
03
Test it with your own controllers
The signed-off configuration moves to a test environment, where your document controllers run acceptance testing on real migrated data: workflows, access control, search, transmittals, and viewing. Anything they raise is fixed and retested.
04
Cut over, then decide about the server
The production migration runs to an agreed cutover with a final delta pass, so late changes come across. Most organisations keep Vault read-only for a period afterwards, then retire the Windows and SQL estate once the record is proven in Lunr.

Lunr's repository folder view, showing an imported folder structure on the left beside the controlled drawing documents on the right.

Export all metadata, drawings, and models at any time, so the record is never locked to us. Read how a migration runs on the implementation page, and see the CAD, GIS, and facilities integrations on the connectors page.

fig. 10 · proof

Owners already run their record on Lunr.

Universities, utilities, energy companies, and government departments run their drawing record on Lunr, from project delivery through the operating life of the asset. The team has migrated organisations off Autodesk Vault, ProjectWise, SharePoint, OnBase, DataViewer, and Meridian.

over10,000,000

documents under management on Lunr. Proof the drawing record holds up at owner-and-portfolio scale.

Case study · University of Canberra

20,000+drawings and documents brought under a controlled owner record.

“Lunr is a simple solution that provides the flexibility to develop the system to our needs. Lunr is simple to use, and minimal training is required.”
Daniel Byrnes, Digital Systems Coordinator, Campus Estate, University of Canberra

Read the University of Canberra case study Engineering document management for universities

fig. 11 · questions

Questions owners ask about Lunr and Autodesk Vault.

What Vault is built for, what an owner carries to keep it running, and what it takes to hold the issued record without interrupting the design office.

Can Autodesk Vault serve as an asset owner's document control system?: Vault is product data management for a design team, and it is strong at that job. It holds work in progress, keeps assembly and xref relationships intact when files are renamed or moved, and runs items and engineering change orders in Vault Professional. An owner's document control system has a different shape. It holds the issued record across every building, plant, and network for decades, stays readable by operations, facilities, contractors, and auditors who never open a CAD application, and carries scanned drawings from long before anyone ran Vault. Owners generally keep Vault where the design work happens and hold the controlled record on a system built for the operating life of the asset.
What is the difference between Lunr and Autodesk Vault?: The difference is where the record lives, who keeps it running, and who can reach it. Vault is a client-server application: the Autodesk Data Management Server and a Microsoft SQL Server database on Windows Server, patched and upgraded by your team, with a Windows client on each workstation and a read-only Thin Client in the browser. Autodesk does not sell Vault as a hosted service, so running it on Azure or AWS is still your own deployment. Lunr is hosted in Australia or the US and reached through a browser, so drawings, models, and Office files open on any operating system with nothing installed. Vault holds the advantage at the CAD desk. Lunr holds it across the rest of the organisation.
Can Autodesk Vault search the text inside a scanned drawing?: Not on its own. Autodesk's documentation states that by default, textual content is not indexed, and that once the Content Indexing Service is enabled, a full content search finds a text string within a known file type. That covers files already carrying text, and it comes with the caveat that a multi-site vault returns only files at the local site. A scanned sheet is an image, so there is nothing for the index to read. Lunr runs OCR and AI full-text search across everything you store, so a valve tag on a 1994 scan turns up as fast as a file saved this morning, and Deep XRAY re-reads a dense drawing in high-resolution tiles so faint or crowded text still resolves.
How does moving off Autodesk Vault work, and does the revision history come across?: The team has migrated organisations off Autodesk Vault before, and the shape is the same every time. Solution design workshops settle the numbering, the metadata, and the asset hierarchy, and map every Vault property to its destination in Lunr. A full sandbox migration then loads your own documents, metadata, and revision history, with reconciliation counts against the source, and it reruns until you sign it off. Revision history comes across in full: every earlier revision is loaded and marked as superseded, so you inherit the history rather than a snapshot of migration day. The production cutover finishes with a delta pass, and Vault keeps running read-only for as long as you want the fallback.

fig. 12 · get started

Keep Vault at the CAD desk. Move the record to the browser.

Book a walkthrough with someone who knows what a transmittal and an as-constructed drawing are, and watch Lunr run against a set of your own.

Book a demo Explore features

10M+ documents under management · Hosted in Australia and the US · SAML · Full audit trail · Export anytime

entity: Lunr Labs Pty Ltd
location: Melbourne AU
workspace: documents.lunr.app
rev: 2026