Searching for items in Upchain

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In this video, we'll show you how you can use the Quick search and the Advanced search,

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and how you can then insert a search results into your cBOM and eBOM.

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So, let's take a look.

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One of the possible uses of projects in Upchain is for a standard library of parts.

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You may have a set of common parts that you'd be looking to use over and over again, such as screws, bolts, and other fasteners.

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Upchain provides you with cross project searches from the CAD plugin,

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so that you can locate items you wish to reuse as-is in your project without having to leave your project.

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Quick search is a cross project search that searches across item names, item numbers, or item descriptions.

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And returns the item versions where its name, number, or description partially matches your search term.

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This is a quick way to perform a general search and is a useful way to find what you're looking for without needing to know many details of the item.

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To perform a quick search, click the search button to open the search page. Then click in the quick search bar.

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Type in a search term. Note that wildcards do not work, and then press "Enter".

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The results shown are those from projects of which your team member and any other project that is set to public.

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You can click on each item in search results and review its details in the lower pane.

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That way you can confirm that you have the item that you want to use.

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If you wish to use one of the items from the search results, right click on it and select "Open".

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This downloads the file to your home folder where you can then insert it into your assembly.

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Advanced search is a cross project search that allows you to be as precise as necessary in your search to find what you need.

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You can search for items or files and specify additional search criteria such as projects or customer attributes,

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to narrow down your search results.

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This is a useful way to find exactly what you need.

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To perform an advanced search, click the "Search" button, then click the "Advanced Search" button.

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This opens the advanced search window. Here, you configure your search criteria.

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The left drop-down is where you specify what object will be returned in the search results.

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The next dorp-down allows you to specify whether this search results need to match all of your search criteria or only some of your search criteria.

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The next drop-down is a list of all available attributes to search for based on the chosen objects on the left.

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Here, we've chosen "Item" and so we have a list of item attributes to search for.

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The next drop-down is the attribute search, the attribute operator search,

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that specifies how Upchain performs the search

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based on the attribute you chose.

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The last field depends on what attribute and search operator is chosen.

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For example, it could be a text field or a drop-down menu or a calendar. Note, again, that wildcards do not work in text fields.

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You can click the plus button to add an additional line to the search that falls within the same objects.

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These are all governed by the same match all, match any drop-down menu.

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And you can add as many lines here as you need.

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Click the parenthesis button to add a sub collection of search criteria.

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These again fall under the same objects, but are governed by their own match all, match any drop-down menu here.

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You can remove any line with the X button.

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If you wish to add additional search criteria that pulls from other object attributes,

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click the Add type button to add an additional search objects.

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This adds a new line,

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and is governed by the AND/OR operator to govern what its relationship is to the top line.

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And it provides you with all of these additional objects that you can use to narrow down your search.

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For example, searching for items that contain certain file types or belong to certain projects.

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The top line should always be the object that you're looking for.

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Because we're working in the CAD plugin, we can only work with items or files. So that's what you should choose for the top level.

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The rest of the available objects allow you to narrow down the search results based on a wide variety of options as we've seen.

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You can make this search as simple or as complex as needed based on what you know about the item you're looking for.

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For example, let's configure a search using categorization.

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This is where categorization becomes a very powerful tool, especially for things like standard parts.

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Categorization is a special set of item attributes that act as labels for items. Categorization must be configured by your tenant administrator.

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And by having it set up at the beginning of using Upchain, you can then apply it to items as they are created where relevant,

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and this makes it easier to find them later on.

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Once you've got your search configured, you can save your search to use it over and over again, if this is a search that you would use quite often.

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This saves you from having to configure the search every single time, especially if it's quite a complex search.

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Once you've got your search configured, press Enter or click the Search button.

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The results shown are those from projects which you're a team member of and any other project that is set to public.

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This is why you should make standard part libraries public projects so that all users are able to access the items.

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The items listed here are the latest versions of the items. If you wanted a different version, you'd have to search for it.

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You can click on each item and review its details on the right-hand side.

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This allows you to review the item to ensure it is the correct one before you download it and start using it.

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If you wish to use one of the items from the search results, you have two options. Download and Insert.

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Download brings up the download window where you download the file to your home folder. And then you can manually insert it into your assembly.

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Insert, download the file to your home folder and then automatically insert it into the origin of your open assembly.

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Clicking the download button means you are presented with the download window, where you can further configure what version you'd like to download.

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This places the file in your home folder. And from there, you can then insert it into your checked-out assembly.

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Now refresh the cBOM view.

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Notice the inserted component is now highlighted red in the cBOM view, and there is a warning symbol with a tooltip.

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This indicates the item has not yet been added to the eBOM. This only happens during a Save or a Check in.

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Right click the assembly,

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and choose "Save", if you want to keep working on the assembly, or "Check in" if you are finished working on the assembly.

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Generally, Upchain assumes that anything you add to your cBOM should be added to the eBOM as well.

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So, it does this for you during the Save and Check in process, and no further action is required on your part.

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Should you wish to modify the eBOM quantities, you can do so from the item view and load the eBOM attributes.

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Click the Insert button from the Advanced search window means Upchain automatically downloads the file to your home folder,

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and then inserts the item into your assembly at its origin.

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This saves you a few clicks from inserting the component yourself, and you can focus on positioning it correctly.

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Refreshing the cBOM view, again we see the inserted component is highlighted red.

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With the tooltips you indicate, it has not yet been added to the eBOM.

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Again, Save or Check in the assembly to have Upchain added to your eBOM for you.

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If you have an assembly checked out and you want to swap a part for another one,

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you can right click the item and select "Replace component".

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This brings up the Advanced search window where this time the option to replace is now enabled.

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Replace removes the selected component and inserts the chosen one from the results.

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To replace a component, select it from the search results, and then click "Replace".

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Upchain now removes the original item and inserts the chosen item from the search results.

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Again, this saves you extra clicks from having to do the swap yourself, and you can now, of course, focus on positioning that inserted component.

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This process does not update the eBOM. So, again you'd have to Save or Check in.

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If you're working with very large assemblies, a quicker way to check in is to use root check-in.

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To do this, first root refresh the cBOM view.

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Root refresh displays the open assembly at the top of the tree with only its first level of items below it in the cBOM and eBOM views.

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It is quicker than refresh as it only looks at the first level children and nothing deeper.

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Right clicking a child component brings up no options. So, you're only concerned with working with the parent assembly.

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To root check-in, right click the assembly and choose "Save" or "Check in".

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This message indicates what will happen next.

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Only the assembly is checked in. The first level items in the cBOM are pushed to the eBOM if they weren't there already.

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And all subcomponents are ignored, even if they're checked out. eBOM only items are also maintained.

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Root check-in is a faster way to commit cBOM changes to your eBOM. This is useful for working with large drawings as well.