tab in the SOLIDWORKS Task pane.CustomTools Search is a feature located as an own tab in the SOLIDWORKS Task pane. The CustomTools Search feature is used to search SOLIDWORKS documents from the CustomTools database.
Anytime you want to open the CustomTools Search activate the tab in the SOLIDWORKS Task pane.
CustomTools Search feature have three main areas the search criterias are divided to for searching documents
| Basic Fields | The general search conditions which can be used to search any kind of documents. |
| Model Fields | Model related CustomProperties which has the Enable property in search option selected. |
| Drawing Fields | Drawing related CustomProperties which has the Enable property in search option selected. |
The Enable property in search option is available for the CustomProperties in the Database Options page of the CustomProperty Wizard.
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Executes the search. Once the search is completed, the Search Results dialog box appear.
The amount of displayed search results can be limited by setting the desired value for the Maximum number of rows shown in the search result list setting in the General User Options of CustomTools. If your models do have more than one configuration you are able to automatically expand the search results in the Search Results dialog box by selecting the Expand documents in search results to show configurations option located in the General User Options of CustomTools.  TIP: You can also press the Enter key to execute the search.
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Resets all search conditions and sets the document type to search for as <ALL>. |
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Open help of the CustomTools Search feature. |
The following keyboard commands could be used to ease the navigation between the search criterias in the CustomTools Search. These keyboard commands applies also to the other CustomTools dialogs and side panes.
Free Search. Given search string is searched from all of the CustomProperty values saved in to the CustomTools database.
Search string can be any kind of combination of alpha-numeric characters.
Keyword that is used to search files will be also compared with the file names. If a file name contains the given search condition the file appears in the search results.
Enable/Disable CustomTools to add a Wildcard characters to both ends of the search keyword by the Insert wildchar automatically to search conditions option located in the General User Options. You can also add the wildcard characters to the free search string yourself. The following table describes the wildcard characters available for the CustomTools Search feature:
| Wildcard Character | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| % | Any string of zero or more characters. | A search string %plate% finds all documents with the word "plate" anywhere in the document properties or filename. |
| _ (underscore) | Any single character. | A search string _ean finds all documents that have a four-letter string in filename or document properties that end with "ean" (Dean, Sean, and so on). |
| [ ] | Any single character within the specified range ([a-f]) or set ([abcdef]). | A search string [C-P]arsen finds for example author last names ending with arsen and starting with any single character between C and P, for example "Carsen", "Larsen", "Karsen", and so on. In range searches, the characters included in the range may vary depending on the sorting rules of the collation. |
| [^] | Any single character not within the specified range ([^a-f]) or set ([^abcdef]). | A search string de[^l]% finds for example all author last names starting with "de" and where the following letter is not "l". |
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To learn more about the Wildcard characters usage, please visit the Microsoft Developer Network. |
The keyword specified in the Free search box searches matching content from all document properties. Also the Configuration column used to represent the model configuration name applies on a free search so you can search the specific configurations as well.
The CustomProperties related search conditions does not limit the search results if any specific search string is typed into the Free search box.
Document Type. Specifies the document type to search for.
Available document types:
| Part | The search returns part documents. |
| Assembly | The search returns assembliy documents. |
| Drawing | The search returns drawing documents. |
| Model | The search returns parts and assemblies. |
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NOTE: You are able to select the desired document type but you cannot edit document types included in the Document Types box. |
| Project | Select the project where you want to search the documents from. Using the project scope in search, returns only the documents assigned to the selected project and its sub-projects. |
The <No project> option selected in the CustomProperties pane for the documents that does not belong to any project, is not available in the CustomTools Search feature. For that reason, in case you have documents in CustomTools database that does not have any project assignment, you can search for them by using the <ALL> option in the Project box.
You can also define the desired CustomProperties to be available as search criterias for searching documents.
When searching documents by the specific CustomProperty values, the search is executed against the database using the logical AND operator. Using the AND operator mean that all property value keywords defined in the property fields in search have to exist in values of the associated properties in the documents in order to get any search results.
Example: Search criterias Description: "Ring", DrawnBy: "MKO" return all documents that have a value "Ring" in property called "Description" and the a value "MKO" in property called "DrawnBy".
Insert a search condition to desired CustomProperty controls to restrict the search results.
You are able to decide which model related CustomProperties can be used as search criterias by setting the option Enable property in search with the CustomProperty Wizard.
Insert a search condition to desired CustomProperty controls to restrict the search results.
You are able to decide which drawing related CustomProperties can be used as criterias by setting the option Enable property in search with the CustomProperty Wizard.
Documents could be searched also by the CustomProperties which type is Checkbox. Then the check box selection state affect to the search results as follows:
| Status | Effect to the results | |
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Clear | The documents which does not have the checkbox property selected, are shown in the search results. |
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Indeterminate | The checkbox property state is ignored in the search. None of the documents are excluded from the search results based on the checkbox state. |
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Selected | The documents which do have the checkbox property selected, are shown in the search results. |