Extended Search in the Parts Management and in the Insert Center

The following extensions have been realized for this version for the search in the Insert center and in the parts management:
- Configurable search
- Reinstalling the setting for the SQL Server full-text search
- Different search behavior depending on the set parts database

Configurable search

As of this version the search in the parts management, in the part selection, in the part master data navigator and in the Insert center has been made configurable. To this purpose the […] button has been added to the Find field in the corresponding dialogs. In the subsequent dialog Configure search you can use a scheme to specify in which properties and in which sequence the search is to be carried out.

Benefit:

With the new configuration for the search you can now specify exactly which properties are taken into consideration during the search. If you limit the search to a few specific properties, the search process is also much faster.

By default only the most important properties (such as part number, type number, manufacturer, etc.) are taken into consideration during the search. To this purpose the scheme with the name "Default" is available in the dialog Configure search.

Different schemes are used for the search in the parts management and for the search in the Insert center.

In the parts management you can not only select part properties for the scheme, but also the properties of the other record types such as accessory list, drilling pattern, etc. And for a search in the Insert center you can select the properties of all three object types such as parts (for devices), symbols and window macros / symbol macros for a scheme.

If the search is to be carried out across all the properties, you have to use an "empty" scheme, meaning a scheme without selected properties. Alternatively you can create a scheme with all properties.

In the course of this new feature the possibility to search for all properties by means of the preceding letter "P" has been removed.

Reinstalling the setting for the SQL Server full-text search

If an SQL Server is used as the database source for the parts management, you can use the SQL Server full-text search again as of this version. To this purpose the check box Use SQL Server full-text search has been re-installed in the group box Database source of the dialog Settings: Parts (user). (A possible command path to this dialog is: File > Settings > User > Management > Parts.)

If this check box is activated, the full-text search integrated on the SQL Server is used for the Find field in the parts management. This accelerates the search, but different results are achieved compared to the "normal" search in SQL databases. This also applies for the search in the part selection, in the part master data navigator and for the search for part properties in the Insert center.

Note:

If SQL Server Express is used, "Advanced Services" has to be installed and configured on the SQL Server so that the full-text search can run in the background.

Different search behavior depending on the set parts database

The search in the Insert center and in the parts management now behaves differently for internal EPLAN databases (for example EPLAN parts databases in alk format) than for SQL parts databases. This is due to, among other things, internal changes for the search and also due to the fact that the search is not carried out locally but on the SQL Server when SQL parts databases are used.

The following differences occur:

During the search in EPLAN databases the search term is searched for in the set dialog language, whereas all languages are searched during the search on an SQL Server.
During the search in EPLAN databases, a search term is also found in the middle of the word or at the end of a word. During the search in SQL parts databases a search term is only found at the beginning of a word. The search for "Bus" in an EPLAN parts database finds both the text "Bus" and "Interbus". With an SQL parts database only "Bus" is found with the same search term.
SQL Server optionally supports a full-text search or a direct search for the data. The speed of the direct search depends directly on the number of CPU cores on the SQL Server.
The placeholder character "?" is supported during the "normal" search on an SQL Server. You should not use placeholder characters (such as "*" or "?") for the full-text search on an SQL Server since these are not reported during such a search.