While Cumulus Vault gives your workgroup a secure way to manage your asset versions, it may be more security than you need in every instance. For example, your workgroup could use an existing asset for a new project, but it’s currently locked up in the catalog of another project. Or, you may want to give samples of your latest work to a client. Since the client won’t be updating the assets and checking them back in, you wouldn’t want to check the assets out.

Cumulus gives you a couple of options for accessing assets outside of Vault’s control system: you can either get a copy of an asset version controlled by Vault, or you can move an asset out of Vault’s control entirely.

There are a couple of important things to keep in mind, however, if you decide to copy or move an asset directly out of Vault:

These functions give you extra flexibility when working with your Vault assets, but they also have the potential to undermine Vault’s access and version control. Make sure that you want to work outside of this control system before you proceed to copy or move.

One way to get an asset out of Vault without checking it out is to copy it to another location (such as your hard disk). In this procedure, Cumulus simply makes a copy of the asset and inserts it wherever you specify. The asset is not checked out, and the associated record in the catalog is not locked for other users.

One way to get an asset out of Vault without checking it out is to copy it to another location using the Copy To menu command. An other way is drag and drop. To copy any asset you can drag and drop a record into another drag and drop-supporting application. Dragging a record copies the asset into the target document. Dragging a record into the Windows Explorer or the macOS Finder copies the asset into the selected folder. When dragging and dropping an asset controlled by Vault it works the same, Cumulus simply makes a copy of the asset and inserts it wherever you specify. The asset is not checked out, and the associated record in the catalog is not locked for other users. And when dragging the record of a Vault asset, Cumulus always gets the latest version of the asset for you to copy.

When dragging the record of a Vault asset into a target document of another drag and drop-supporting application, be aware that most applications need a path to the “dropped” file which Vault does not provide. In this case you should copy the Vault asset to your file system first and then place this copy into the application.

When dragging the record of a Vault asset into a drag and drop-supporting application that opens the asset, a temporary file will be created. Be aware that for Vault assets this is not the same function as the Edit With menu command where Cumulus recognizes that the asset is controlled by Vault and automatically triggers a check out procedure.

Moving an asset out of Vault’s control destroys revision tracking and retention for the asset. The latest version will be moved out of the Vault location (to your hard drive, for example), and all versions will be deleted from that location. If you move it to a place that Clients cannot access, it will no longer be available to others in your workgroup.

Cumulus does provide you with some protection in this case, however. When you move an asset from Vault, Cumulus updates the asset reference in the catalog to “point to” the new location, i.e., the location you specified. Other users will still be able to see where the asset is located, even if they may not be able to access it. Remember, completing the following procedure deletes all versions of the asset from Vault. If this is not what you are trying to do, you may want to consider simply getting a copy of the asset (see “Copying an Asset Controlled by Vault,” this page).