This topic is contained in the PDXpert help file: select Contents from the application's Help menu.

Searching for items

1. Click on the Item Explorer's Search tab.

2. Enter the search terms most likely to uniquely identify an item. For instance, you can use an item number, words in the item's description, the item's type, the owning organization, release status, or custom attribute values.

   See the How to use the Item Explorer > Search syntax reference topic for more information on constructing searches.

3. Click on the Search button to start the search.

4. Double-click the item you want to open, or right-click on the item to open the context menu and select Open Item. Or, use different search terms to refine the list of items.

Just like a web search engine, results are ranked according to their relevance to the search terms. Matching item numbers, descriptions and other data appearing on an item's General tab will usually rank higher in the results. Some returned items may be only loosely related to your initial search term, and these items will be listed lower on the results list.

If your results do not include the items you want, try refining your search by adding more terms.

To optimize workstation and network performance, the result set is limited to about 2000 records. If your search is very general — say, part or 1* — then the result set may not contain your item. By using more specific search terms, you'll get more useful results, and faster: transferring a focused subset to your client is more efficient than moving 2000 records.

It takes a few moments for a newly-saved item record to be indexed and available in search results.

File contents are indexed based on file "filters" that have been installed on the server computer. Based on system load and file size, there may be a noticeable delay before a file's content is included in search results. If a file attachment doesn't have a matching filter, then its content isn't included in your search results.

You can exclude items by disabling the "include" buttons above the search textbox. When an include button is highlighted, the related items are included in the search. Clicking on the include button will toggle the highlight and the search results. In the picture below, all canceled parts and documents will be excluded from the search results.

While the results will list items that meet your search criteria, your ability to open a specific item is controlled by your security permissions. These are determined by the system administrator, who specifies:

• your assigned Role, which grants access to specified item classes and release status; and
• whether you've been denied access in the Product Family, which assigns items to specific projects.

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Help topics describe the most current PDXpert PLM software release, and may differ from earlier releases.