Searching

[barceloj]

So far, Vault is the only program I use where I have to type in something special to find a piece of a text string.  Everyother program with a search function will find “AutoCAD” if I just search for “CAD”, except, ironically enough… Autodesk Vault!

Having to use wildcards and boolean operators in the age of Google seems antiquated.

[B.Rawling]

The search system indexes tokens instead of whole property values. Tokens are individual chunks of a property values that allow the system to locate files based on pieces of information. This type of searching allows for quicker search results and reduces the impact to the system when searching a Vault containing thousands of property values.

Knowing how property values are broken down into tokens allows users to search for tokens only. When a user performs a search for 123, only the files with a property containing just 123 are returned. The results do not include the 1234567.dwg file because the first token is 1234567.

This ability to specify search values based on tokens allows more latitude when constructing searches. A user can append a wildcard for broader searches or specify a token for more refined returns.

How Property Values are broken into Tokens:

All adjacent characters of like type are grouped into a single token. Like type is alphabetic (A, B, C, ...Z), numeric (0,1,2,..9), or special punctuation (-,_,@...$).

Only six punctuation characters are searchable:

Dollar sign ($) Dash (-) Underscore (_) At sign (@) Plus sign (+) Hash (#)

All other punctuation is not searchable and is not contained in tokens.

Hope this helps

[barceloj]

Thank you, Bryan, for explaining the logic, or lack thereof, behind Vault's searching abilities.  

I still don't know why a search engine, Google or Bing for instance, provides results from millions of URLs in fractions of a second.  So I still must say that the use of wildcards and boolean operators in the age of Google seems antiquated.  

Searching should be just that, a search, finding any instance of the charcter or characters of which I am searching.  

I find it odd that you say "Property Values are broken into Tokens".  Webster's dictionary defines token as "a small part representing the whole" thus implying that a search for "CAD" would return results containing the word "AutoCAD".

But thanks for your extensive and highly detailed explanation.

[ihayesjr]

Thanks for sharing your Idea. We use this forum to guide product development and help users in the best way we can base on voting. We occasionally merge Ideas or archive old ones to keep the forum working properly- it ensures there is room for people to review new Ideas and that the most relevant and meaningful ones can gain votes. We are archiving this Idea because it has been on the board for well over a year and hasn't received many votes from the community. If you want to raise it again and try to gain more support, you are welcome to do so. We have found that pictures and mock-ups can help get concepts across and win more votes from other users. If you have questions or see a connection between this Idea and others, let us know. - Vault product team