SHEET HAPPENS IV: Searching for elements – This helps a lot
by Lantek
Advanced Manufacturing
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Every once in a while someone appears, usually from a commercial department, asking, "That part we did seven months ago, can you find it?" and when you ask for more information, they say something like, "You remember, it was about… this big!” while making a measuring gesture with their hands.
Straight away you know that you are going to spend half the morning looking for the part.
For this reason, and when creating a part, it is highly recommended that you make the most of the fields that define it, including the customizable fields. Remember, you will always be asked to find something you did months ago, and for that, you will be grateful that you can take advantage of one of the most useful and powerful tools in the software - the search for items function.
In this article, I am going to tell you how to delve into Lantek’s element search function, explaining in detail how it works and how to use it to search by different criteria, such as name, code, date, status, among others, returning a list of results that can be further sorted and filtered.
How to call the search function.
From the Lantek work area, it is found in the “Start” menu in the “Editing” section, under a magnifying glass button.
If you use it a lot, it is highly recommended to assign it a short cut key, which you can configure from "Configuration Options", in the "Jobs" menu in the Jobs section.
(In a future article we will explain how to create hotkeys, for all kinds of Lantek functions, it can be really useful, saving a lot of time once created.)
When you click on the search button, an “Item Search” window opens and is also added as a tab next to “Product List”. This window has several drop-down sections which open as you click on them.
Sections and fields in the search window
Remember, in all fields, you can use the wildcard "%" when searching for strings of text. Use it by putting a "%” before and after the text string you want to search for.
The first things that appear in the search window are the following fields:
Type: Used to select the type of work. You can choose between Jobs, Kits or Both.
Name: Used to search by the name of the job.
Location: A folder tree opens so you can limit the search to a series of specific folders.
Status: Used to filter by job status.
Next, and under the "Contains" label, a new series of fields to search or filter are displayed.
Machine: You can filter by machine. Choose from the dropdown menu.
Material: Filter by material type through the dropdown menu.
Thickness: Filter by material thickness.
CNC: Search by CNC file name.
Part:
Name: You can search by part name.
Reference: Search by job/part number.
● Sheet metal.
Reference: Search by the sheet of material used for the job.
Next you have a filter option "Date". Clicking on it, opens more search fields:
Creation date: By default, the filter will be applied to the creation date. However, by clicking on the dropdown you can modify the date range.
From date.
To date
For the above two options, the dropdown opens two calendars, delimiting the search between the two chosen dates. If you leave this blank, Lantek will search the entire database irrespective of date.
Under the "Advanced options" menu choice, another filter dropdown opens. Here, you can search and filter by the job reference, which is code that Lantek automatically assigns to each job. This starts with "JOB..." followed by a number.
In addition to the job number and description, there are five extra user fields that you can preconfigure to label your jobs. These can be a great help in finding the job or part requested.
Lastly, there are two more options that open two dropdowns. These are "Select Budgeting Jobs" and "Select Jobs with Multiprograms". The only options are "Yes, No or Only these"; which gives a clear idea of what they do.
How to use the Lantek search window
To use the search function in Lantek, you simply open the search window and fill in or select the criteria for all the fields and filters that you consider can refine the results.
You then click the "Search" button to execute the search.
If you have chosen the search criteria well, the list of results will be very close to what you are looking for. In addition, you can further sort and filter this list according to your needs.
To see more details of a particular result, you can right-click and a contextual menu below will appear.
Open
Modify
Export
Delete
From this contextual menu you can go a long way in cleaning up the search, either by deleting, opening or modifying.
Some tips that can help you get better results.
Use the maximum number of criteria you know. Make them specific and relevant to your search.
Use wildcards (%) to search by sequence of characters. It is very useful with limited information.
Use filters to reduce the number of results displayed. It is the best way to refine the result.
Sorts the list of results.
That’s all
As you have seen, Lantek’s search function is easy to use and will allow you to quickly find items in Lantek’s database. If you follow these steps and these tips, you will be able to obtain better results from the search function, saving time, which we always need more of!
"SHEET HAPPENS" is a section written by a Lantek customer, a seasoned professional veteran of a thousand battles who will regularly provide us with tips, shortcuts and best practices using Lantek Expert. Don’t miss it!
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