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Searching PDMLink / Windchill

LawrenceS
18-Opal

Searching PDMLink / Windchill

Any ideas on how to improve the breath of searching abilities in PDMLink?  Most particularly:

  1. At minimum, PDMLink should be able to search every area that a user can input information in PDMLink, but apparently it doesn't?!  For example, currently it doesn't search Change notice attachments, nor even the description that the user types in the PDMLink description field!  In addition, there are some areas of CAD objects that it has not searched but perhaps someone else can remember which ones.
  2. This may be a stretch, but is there an easy way to get PDMLink to index and search drawing content (that are not attributes...the text actually on the drawing)?

Thanks! Lawrence


"When you reward an activity, you get more of it!"
14 REPLIES 14

Do you have Solr installed?  That is the indexing tool that will allow keyword search to search content.

BTW. What version of Windchill are you using?

Yes, we use Solr, and it is setup to be used to index everything else in PDMLink, but not the stuff I described above.

Also, our drawings are published to HPGL because if we published them to pdf we had a few problems.

We are on WC 10.1


"When you reward an activity, you get more of it!"
RandyJones
19-Tanzanite
(To:LawrenceS)

Lawrence Scheeler wrote:

Any ideas on how to improve the breath of searching abilities in PDMLink?  Most particularly:

  1. At minimum, PDMLink should be able to search every area that a user can input information in PDMLink, but apparently it doesn't?!  For example, currently it doesn't search Change notice attachments, nor even the description that the user types in the PDMLink description field!  In addition, there are some areas of CAD objects that it has not searched but perhaps someone else can remember which ones.
  2. This may be a stretch, but is there an easy way to get PDMLink to index and search drawing content (that are not attributes...the text actually on the drawing)?

You can configure solr to index the text in (Creo Parametric) drawings by setting indexable to true for the DRW formatName.  See:

http://www.ptc.com/cs/help/windchill_hc/wc100_hc/index.jspx?id=WCCG_Serv_DataFormats_AddUpdateDataFormats&action=show

Basically you are going to use:

  • windchill wt.content.DataFormatUtil -list 
    • to list the current formatName's and their information
  • windchill wt.content.DataFormatUtil -update
    • to update the DRW formatName and set indexable=true

after this you will need to run the bulk indexer ( windchill wt.index.BulkIndexTool )  in order to get the drawings indexed - might take a while depending on how many you have

Trying this on a test server is always good...

, Thanks for posting this method/suggestion, I will look into this and post back...


"When you reward an activity, you get more of it!"

Another description of how to do this is available here "Add CAD Data to Windchill Index Search": http://support.ptc.com/cs/help/windchill_hc/wc110_hc/WCSysAdminIndexSearch_SetUpWCIndexSearchIndexCADPart.html

Also "Specify MIME Types for Content Indexing":

http://support.ptc.com/cs/help/windchill_hc/wc110_hc/WCSysAdminIndexSearchFileContentIndexing.html

See the sections:

  • "Add a MIME Type"
  • "Verify that a MIME Type is Indexable"

Regarding Change Notice attachments -

Yes, it appears that the attachment description field is not indexed OOTB. However, the attachment content and file names should be indexed, and keyword-searchable. The caveat is that the Change Notice is listed in the search results -- not the attachment.

STEVEG
21-Topaz I
(To:RandyJones)

Randy,

Does it matter if the drawings are published to HPGL?

RandyJones
19-Tanzanite
(To:STEVEG)

Steve Galayda wrote:

Randy,

Does it matter if the drawings are published to HPGL?

No. Solr indexes the Creo Parametric .drw file.

As a caution compressed drw's can't be indexed:

https://support.ptc.com/appserver/cs/view/solution.jsp?n=CS205744

Pieface
6-Contributor
(To:RandyJones)

We had the same question.  Why does "Keyword" not locate CN's when typing in a keyword we know is in the description?  Through trial/error we learned you must leave the "Keyword" field blank and use "*keyword*" in the "Description" field available through Criteria>Add>Description (shown below).

CN Description.JPG

tstacy
1-Newbie
(To:Pieface)

Not sure about Solr, but with the previous tool, FAST, there was a property or file where you could add additional types to be indexed so that the keyword search worked on them.  We had some custom types that we needed to add and some additional attributes on WTDocument that we wanted indexed.  We are using Solr on my current project, but haven't had a need for additional indexing yet.

MikeLockwood
22-Sapphire I
(To:tstacy)

At one point I created a drawing with text in every possible location in order to test what full text search found.  Helpful.  Text can be in for example:

- Notes (parametric or not)

- Cells in drawing format

- Cells in a drawing table

- View labels

- Balloons

- etc.

Most helpful seems to be finding via full text search:

- Non-parametric references to part numbers / other documents

- Non-parametric material, finish, etc. callouts (e.g. find all drawings that specify anodize per MILSTD-A8625...

Note: In the MIME type, include Drawings but not PRT and ASM.  The PTC example on this I think still includes models which to me doesn't make much sense.

Randy JonesMike Lockwood‌  Caitlin Wheeless

Thanks again for showing the methods you are using to set up PDMLink to search drawing content.  We are currently exploring them with our VAR and will start trying them on our test server.

Once this is set up correctly, is there the option to either search drawing content, or not search drawing content?  Kind of like most windows search engines where you can specify to search by filename, or by file content.  So that if content returns too much results we have a way to filter it down.  Or is it all or nothing?

Thanks again for everyone's help!


"When you reward an activity, you get more of it!"

So... much more to this - as with most things.

1. As admin you have to "bulk index" everything once, then leave the related property index_enabled=true in order to index all new objects (new/check in).  Can monitor via indexing queues.

2. As admin, ensure that the preference index search is no, but not locked so users can set when needed.

3. Each user has to set the same preference - index search yes when they want to use.  It's confusing until users get it.

search w/o index may return 1 or a few objects

same search with index may return 10,000 objects

I would prefer that PTC make this a checkbox on the search UI rather than a preference

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:MikeLockwood)

If you perform a keyword search with indexing enabled, and you are indexing drawings, the content will be searched no matter what. A couple workarounds:

A.) To search by file name only: From Advanced Search, leave the Keyword field blank, and use Criteria > File Name instead.

To include file name and file content: Use the Keyword field (assuming indexing is enabled in your preferences).

Note: If File Name isn't coming up as an option under criteria, you can use the instructions here to add it: Customize Criteria Selections

or

B.) Configure database (non-indexed) keyword searches to search against the file name attribute. By default, non-indexed keyword searches are only performed against Name and Number, but you can add fields using the instructions outlined here: Configuring Non-Indexed Keyword Searches

Once that is done, you would need to change the change the value of the "Enable Index Search" preference depending on whether you wanted to include file content or not. As Tom Uminn mentions, there is a popular product idea to add an index search toggle switch. If/when we add this enhancement, this will get a lot easier. Also, if you upgrade to 11.0+, the search facets can certainly make filtering a lot easier: Search: Faceted Results

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