"Find Assembly Components" question

[randallgraham4313]

I have a very large assembly and am trying to find where a component is in the assembly. I open the "Find Assembly Components"  binocular icon above the browser and no matter what number I plug in, it can't find it. Even when I plug a number that is visible in the browser, it can't find it. I am obviously doing something wrong in what I am plugging into this diag box. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions for me? Thanks

Randall

[daltec2]

When i fill out the following info in the "Find Assembly Components" it finds the Component/part/assembly im searching for.

[randallgraham4313]

Thanks

I tried what you suggested and it works to a disappointing level. The part I am searching for is buried in a sub-assy and

after the search I could not find it highlighted anywhere. I did find it when I did an 'expand all' then I had to scroll thru maybe 40 screens on the browser, then I located it. In the perfect world, and I have seen this on other systems, when you do a search for a part, it would automatically highlight it and it would expand only the appropriate sub assy and put it at the top of the browser window. Unless someone can show me a setting I need to activate, I would need to expand all and manually scroll thru the whole browser to find the component. I hope there is an easier way. Any suggestions? Thanks

Randall

[randallgraham4313]

This is a difficult thing to describe but allow me to explain further. If you highlight a part in your model  and initiate the command  ' find in browser' , the item is highlighted in your browser and you are directed to the highlighted item. If you highlight an item listed in the browser, and initiate the command 'find in window' , the machine zooms to the part in your display area and highlights it. When I do a 'find assembly component' command even if it finds it, I have to 'expand all' and start scrolling thru the browser menu's. And on a large assembly, there could be hundreds of screens. If that is just the way it is, I can accept that too. I just need to know if I should stop looking.

Thanks

Randall

[rolabendan]

It'd be nice if the "Find Assembly Components" command presented the number of instances it found, as well.

[stephenrottloff7259]

Most of the time you use the find tool because most parts are hidden within an assembly, and, you normally work with the shaded view on.  Switch to wireframe mode first, then use the find tool.  Even though the model tree may not get expanded to show the found parts, they will be highlighted in the model view and are easy to locate in 3D space.

Stephen R.

[bill984]

solidworks will find the first one then, next, next next

[snappyjazz]

One thing I've noticed, after you run your search in "find assembly components"; Inventor highlights all instances in model space. If you right click -> isolate, it helps you narrow down your search. I know this works for specific instances, but I thought it could help someone.

[philthalmann]

I've rarely used this search functionality as it has always felt to complicated and cumbersome and I didn't get easy results I was hoping to see. 

Some good ideas presented here though and I'll have to try them. I've used the 'wireframe' mode in the past for constraints that weren't in plain view but never thought to use it here.

Isolate is another good one. It works. 

I haven't installed 2018 yet but understand the search has changed dramatically there. Can anyone confirm that search is now much easier to use now?

[mcgyvr]

---

@philthalmann wrote:

I've rarely used this search functionality as it has always felt to complicated and cumbersome and I didn't get easy results I was hoping to see. 

Some good ideas presented here though and I'll have to try them. I've used the 'wireframe' mode in the past for constraints that weren't in plain view but never thought to use it here.

Isolate is another good one. It works. 

I haven't installed 2018 yet but understand the search has changed dramatically there. Can anyone confirm that search is now much easier to use now?

---

@philthalmann 2018 totally changed this functionality.. Its much...much better now.. 

[rolabendan]

One thing that I have found since my post back in 2012, if it helps anyone, is this sequence-

In the Inventor browser under View, right-click and select "All Hidden".

Run your search.

When the search ends, right-click in the browser and select "Visibility".

You will then see what you searched for.

*I haven't installed release 2018 yet, and so can't comment whether anything is improved in this regard.

Thanks.

[shaun]

I don't see a "view" in my inventor browser, so I can't select all hidden, I'm missing this somehow?

[rolabendan]

In the Inventor browser-

Expand >Representations

Expand   >View

Right-Click on the active view (usually named Default)

In the Context Menu, Select All Hidden

After you are done searching, all components can be made visible again using the same process and selecting All Visible.

I find this more convenient than looking through a spider web of wireframe on large assemblies (View> Visual Style> Wireframe).

Screenshot attached. I could not capture the Context menu.

Thanks.

[stephenrottloff7259]

Which version of Inventor are you using?  This may explain why that context menu option is not available.

[shaun]

Thanks - I didn't have the view popout expanded, got this answer from you guys and from inventor support.  Really a better way to do things, at least acceptable!!

[rolabendan]

What I meant is that I couldn't include the Context menu in the attachment that I posted as when I hit the Alt key the context menu went away.

I was using the Alt-Print-Screen method to capture the display and create the attachment.

Thanks.