Search
SolidWorks Search is available in SolidWorks and SolidWorks Explorer
to search for file names and for text strings in all indexed documents.
Searching Adobe Acrobat documents
requires add-ins from Microsoft.
SolidWorks Search is faster than
other search engines and provides:
Full text
search (searching text inside documents)
Advanced
search (searches for multiple criteria)
Keywords
(for precise searches)
Retrieval
of all types of documents
Windows Desktop Search is installed with SolidWorks and indexes the
resources once before searching begins, either after installation or when
you initiate the first search. Subsequent indexing of added files is fast
and transparent.
To search:
In the SolidWorks Search box , type the text or keywords
to search for, then press Enter.
Click to choose
a recent search. The last 10 unique searches are listed.
Results
The search results appear:
In SolidWorks, on the
Search tab in the
Task Pane.
In SolidWorks Explorer,
on the Results tab in the left pane.
If the results require more than one page,
navigate with the Forward and Back buttons or specify a page for Next
at the bottom of the tab.
The search results include:
Options
In Options, you can specify:
Search while typing
Include 3D Content
Central results
Number of results per page
Maximum number of results per data source
Indexing performance
Dissection
To access options in SolidWorks:
Specify search paths in Tools,
Options, System
Options, File
Locations. Select Search Paths
in Show folders for.
Specify other options in Tools,
Options, System
Options, Search.
To access option in SolidWorks Explorer:
Click Options
and select the Search
tab.
Search Locations
On the Search tab , you can select from:
All Locations. All items below.
Local Files.
The local computer plus any paths added with Add Location.
SolidWorks Workgroup
PDM. Available when Workgroup PDM is
added in. The vault is searched.
3D
Content Central
Add Location.
Opens the Options dialog box at
File Locations
with Search Paths in Show
folders for. Selections, including locations on networks, are added
to the local search.
SolidWorks Search does not
search folder names.
Search Command Syntax
A colon and space separate keywords
from the values to be searched for. The syntax is:
Keywords
The following keywords are available:
Filename |
Feature |
Created |
DocType |
Block |
Author |
Number |
Layer |
Owner |
Description |
Sheet |
Project |
Configuration |
Sketch |
Note |
Reference |
Attribute |
Table |
Material |
Modified |
|
The format for Modified
and Created is that specified
on the local computer (mm/dd/yyyy
or dd/mm/yyyy, for example).
Any custom property can be a
keyword. For example, if a SolidWorks document contains custom property
Customer, a search can be Customer: ACME.
Some properties such as Material
are mapped to internal SolidWorks values. To bypass the SolidWorks internal
search to find specific file custom properties, you can specify FileProperty<property>:<property_name>
in the search string. For example, FilePropertyMaterial:steel
will search only the custom property material
for steel and not the SolidWorks
internal property.
The following operators are supported:
Modified and Created
The format for Modified and Created is that specified on the local
computer (mm/dd/yyyy or dd/mm/yyyy, for example).
Text arguments:
"today" |
"last week" |
"last month" |
"last year" |
"yesterday" |
"this week" |
"this month" |
"this year" |
The following operators are supported:
Examples
Search String |
Results |
nut |
Text beginning with nut, same
as nut* |
screw nut |
Text with screw and nut,
also text with only screw and
only nut |
"screw nut" |
Exact term screw nut |
*nut |
Text with nut in the string,
equivalent to *nut* (slow) |
description: nut |
Custom property description
containing nut |
material: steel |
Custom property material containing
steel |
doctype: sldasm |
Assemblies |
filename: 234 |
File name in document starting with 234 |
modified: "yesterday" |
Documents modified yesterday |
modified: "last year" |
Documents modified last year (quotation marks required) |
modified: >02/01/2006 |
Documents modified after the date, which must be specified (not yesterday) |
created: 02/01/2006 |
File creation date |
nut modified: "today" |
Text nut in documents modified
today |
nut number: 123 |
Text nut in documents with custom
property number beginning with
123. |
Number: ref876hj Customer: SolidWorks |
Custom property Number with
value ref876hj and custom property
Customer with value SolidWorks |
created: "yesterday" doctype: slddrw author: eric |
Documents created yesterday with file extension slddrw
and custom property author with
value eric |
material:steel fileext:drw |
Drawings with steel in annotations
or title block |
A shortcut menu with Copy, Cut, Paste,
etc. facilitates editing of search strings.