Finding Items

In JetStream, searching the model for items based on their properties is quick and simple using the Find Items control bar. This bar is also a dockable bar accessed as usual through the View, Control Bars menu, or from the Workspace control bar by pressing the Find Items button . Alternatively, go to Edit, Find Items

The Find Items control bar looks like this:

Notice that the selection trees occupy the left half of this bar, allowing you to refine your searches further within a specific hierarchy. See for more information on the selection trees. Simply click on the selection tree tab that best suits your current search.

Finding items based on properties

1. If it's not already open, open the Find Items control bar as outlined above.

2. Choose the selection tree tab that best suits your search. For example, if you know you are limiting your find to within a specific selection set, then choose the Sets tab.

3. Choose the items where you want to start the find from. For example, if you know you want to search the whole model, then choose the file or files from the Standard tab that comprise the model. You could also select several selection sets to limit your find to these items in the sets.

   Note

   You can right click on the selection tree and choose from Import Current Selection to quickly select the items currently selected for the search, or conversely, Set As Current Selection to set the current selection to that you have already selected in the find selection tree.

4. The right hand side of the bar contains a list box with four columns, Category Property Condition , and Value . This is where the find specification is set up. In this list box, you define a series of conditions which are, by default, logically ANDed together as follows:

   • Each condition is started by clicking on the next available line under the Category column and from the ensuing drop down, choosing which category the property you wish to search for is in. Only the categories that are contained in the scene are available in the drop down.

   • After choosing the category, then choose the property you wish to test for in the Property drop down which will then be available. Again, only the properties in the scene within the category chosen will be available.

   • Then, from the following Condition drop down, choose the condition you wish to test for. This will depend on the type of property you are searching for. For example, you can choose Contains to search for a series of letters within a string. Wildcard means you can use wildcards in the Value field to allow matching against any character or an arbitrary sequence of characters. The symbol means "exactly equals" and can be used for any type of property. The mathematical symbols, and apply to number types and mean "less than", "greater than", "less than or equal to", and "greater than or equal to" respectively. Also available are Defined and Undefined to mean "anything" (in other words, it's there) and "nothing" (in other words, it's not there) respectively.

   • Finally, if you didn't choose either Defined or Undefined in the Condition column, you have to define the Value you want to match in the find. You can either type in a value freely in the text box, or choose a pre-defined value from the drop down which shows all values in the model available within the category and property you defined earlier. If you chose Wildcard in the Condition column you can type in a value with wildcards. To match one single unspecified character use the symbol , for example, a Value field of "b??ck" will match "brick" and "block". To match any number of unspecified characters, use the symbol , for example, a Value field of "b*k" will match "bench kiosk", "brick" and "block". Similarly, a Value field of "*b*k*" will match "bench kiosk", "brick" and "block" and also "Coarse bricks" and "block 2".

5. Continue to add conditions to the find specification. Each condition you add will by default be logically ANDed with the others. See the >example below for a better explanation of the logic.

6. You can logically negate any condition by selecting the condition, then right clicking on the list box and choosing Negate Condition . See the >example below for a better explanation of the logic.

7. Instead of the condition being logically ANDed, you can also logically OR a condition by selecting the condition, then right clicking on the list box and choosing Or Condition . All conditions following this condition are logically ANDed together and will be logically ORed with all conditions preceding this condition (which are in turn logically ANDed together). A small "plus" will appear next to an ORed condition. See the >example below for a better explanation of the logic.

8. To delete the selected condition, right click on the list box and choose Delete Condition from the context menu. Alternatively, to delete all the conditions in the find specification, choose Delete All Conditions from the context menu.

9. The context menu that appears when right clicking on the list box also contains several Ignore Category ... and Ignore Property ... options. See for details on what these mean.

10. Check the Match Case check box if you want the find to respect the upper and lower case letters in strings. You can also define case sensitivity at the condition level by selecting the condition, right clicking on the list box and choosing Ignore String Value Case from the context menu. This will then ignore that condition's case when making comparisons. The Match Case check box should gray out, showing that some conditions are case sensitive and other are not.

11. Check the Prune Below Result check box if you want to stop searching a branch of the selection tree as soon as an item that matches the find specification is found.

12. From the Search drop down, select the type of search you want to perform.

    • Default searches all items selected in the selection tree, along with the paths below these itesm, for matches with the search.

    • Below Selected Paths only searches below the items selected in the selection tree for matches with the search.

    • Selected Paths Only only searches within the items selected in the selection tree for matches with the search.

13. Click Find First for the first item in the selection tree to match any of the find specification, Find Next to find the next item in the tree, and Find All to find all items matching the specification.

14. You can click on Abort Search at any time during a lengthy search to cancel the search.

15. Any items found will be selected in the selection tree and main navigation window.

Find Item Example

Say you have set up four conditions in the search called C1, C2, C3 and C4. If you want to search for (C1 AND C2) OR (C3 AND NOT C4), then you would select condition 3 and choose Or Condition from the context menu, and then select condition 4 and choose Negate Condition from the context menu. So all conditions following the OR are ANDed together and this group of conditions is ORed with the first group of conditions, which are also ANDed together. In other words, the precedence is NOT, then AND, then OR.