Quick search
You can use different methods to search in the Item overview. The simplest form of conducting a search is to use the quick search which you can find in the top of the Navigation pane;
In the quick search you can search for properties on Items, occurrences and products. Summary of what you can search for;
- Item: Item number, Name, BIM ID and Item classification
- Occurrence: Occurrence/component classification
- Products: Number, Name, Model, Manufacturer and Supplier
All searches in the Item overview is "sticky searches" (both for quick and advanced search) which means that your search will be remembered when you navigate the item groups. Lets say you search for the word "Chair", the item groups will be filtered when you navigate so you only see items with the word "Chair" in their names. The search will be active until you delete the search word or use the X icon to the right of the quick search field.
Advanced search
If you need to do more complex searches by e.g. combine search conditions you can use Advanced search;
Advanced search is divided in two tabs; Simple filter and Advanced filter. In most cases the Simple filter will be sufficient.
Simple filter
In the simple filter you can search in all properties in Items, occurrence and products. In the simple filter you first need to decide which entity you want to search for. You can choose between Items, Occurrences and Products. What you select will affect what properties you can search in. If you e.g. select Item, all Item properties and specifications will show in the attribute list. You can also search for an attribute by typing in a value in the attribute text-box.
When you have found the attribute to search in you can select search method. This menu will adjust depending on what attribute you have selected. If you have selected a checkbox you will only be able to search for the values Yes/NO. If you have selected a numeric, drop-down or text-field you need to type in the value you want to search for. The image below shows an example where we want to find all Items with the responsibility ARC;
You can add more conditions by selecting "Add" to the right for the first row. If you want to remove a condition select "Remove". If you have more than one search condition, you will see an option in the top where you can decide whether you want all criteria to be fulfilled or only one criteria by selecting And/Or;
- And: Search result need to fulfill all conditions
- Or: Search result must fulfill at least one of the conditions
Tip
There are two types of criteria for text which require detailed explanation:
Pattern: The pattern option allows you to create a more precise search function where you can use the ? and * characters as wildcards to represent a random character or several random characters. You use the | character to denote or group expressions with brackets. The search code S1??(N|M)* will provide all results which start with S1 and have either N or M as 5 characters. Not pattern means everything with the exception of search results. For example, *BA will return all which do not end in BA.
Regular expression: Using regular expressions, you can create extremely advanced search expression using pattern in text.
Documentation of this is available: here
You can save a search by selecting "Save" in the bottom right corner for the advanced search dialogue window. Give the saved search a name and define whether you want to share the search with other users or if it's only should be visible for you. You can find all the saved searches using the drop-down in the quick search field;
You can also edit or delete saved searches from the ribbon menu by selecting "Edit search" or "Delete search";
Complex filter
In the Complex filter you can set one or several top conditions and build an even more advanced search. This can be useful if you e.g. want to search withing a certain selection of items. Let's say we want to find all items that are connected to responsibility groups ARC (Architect) and IARC (Interior Architect) that also are set "To be modeled". To accomplish this we need to create two top conditions. First we need to find all items with the responsibility ARC or ID, then we need to find out which of those items is set to be modeled. The search will look like this using complex filter;
In Condition 1 we specify that we want to find all items with responsibility ARC or IARC:
If we had selected 'And' to combine the two conditions we would only get items which were connected to both responsibility groups (which is not allowed in dRofus so the search would return blank).
Then we created a new top condition (Condition 2). Here we want to find all items within Condition 1 that are set To be modeled. Select "Add root condition" and find "To be modeled" as search criteria as shown in the image above.
We now have two conditions (1 and 2). What's left to do is to determine how these two conditions shall be combined. We have selected "And" in this case because we want our search result to fulfill both conditions;
Condition 1: (Items must have responsibility ARC or IARC) And...
Condition 2 (Items must be set to be modeled)
Searches created in complex filter can be saved, edited and deleted similar to searches created in simple filter.