Navigating Data

The following tasks show you how to navigate data.

This task shows you how to:

 

See Also
More help on this topic

Expand an Object

This task shows you how to expand an object in your object structure.

  1. To expand an object, do one of the following:
    • in the 3D, double-click the object
    • in the tree, double-click the object name
    • in the tree, click the "+" node
  2. To expand the tree to the first level below a selected node, right-click a node and select Expand First Level .
  3. To expand the tree to the second level below a selected node, right-click a node and select Expand Second Level .
  4. To expand selected nodes, right-click a node and select Expand Selection .
    A pop-up dialog box will ask you how many levels you want to expand.
  5. To expand all levels of an object, select the object and, in the Navigation section of the action bar, click Expand All .
    All branches of the selected object are expanded down to their leaf components.
    Tip: To order tree nodes alphabetically, your administrator can select the appropriate option in the Preferences.
  6. To collapse an object, in the specification tree, click the "-" node.
  7. To collapse all levels of the tree below a selected node, right-click the node and select Collapse All.
  8. To expand an object a configured number of levels:
    1. In the View section of the action bar, select Set Expand Level.
      A Set Expand Level dialog box appears.
    2. Select the number of levels you want to expand objects and click OK.
    3. In the tree, right-click an object and select Customized Expand.
      The object will be expanded by the configured number of levels.
      Tip: To define a smaller number of levels for subsequent expands, you must:
      • first run the Collapse All command
      • then redefine the number of levels using Set Expand Level.

Notes:
  • While using 6WTags, the Expand Accelerator mode is activated automatically. If you deactivate the Expand Accelerator mode when there is a tagger panel already displayed and a tag or tags are applied on the structure, tags are removed from the structure and will disappear from the tagger panel.
  • When you apply a filter, the tags are refreshed according to the filtered structure. Tagger criteria is not persistent. When the root is filtered with tagger criteria, the same filter cannot be stored as a persistent filter. If the structure is filtered with both tagger and user-defined filter criteria, only the user-defined filter can be stored in a persistent filter.
  • After grouping the structure, the classification defined in Product Finder Classic is kept in the authoring mode even after performing an open operation. The grouping criteria is kept by using any open command (Open, Open Advance, or WYSIWYG Open). For more information, see 3D Modeling | Systems Architecture | Product Structure Design | Working with Products | Opening a Product.
  • Grouping can be applied only on the 1st level of a structure. While using the Group command in 6WTags, the defined grouping criteria cannot be used to classify the opened content when:
    • A simple predicate or a simple tag is selected in the tagger.
    • A hierarchical predicate or one/more hierarchical tags, that are not defined with the BELCHAR mechanism, has been selected in the tagger (for example, hierarchical predicate or tags defined with folder).
  • While grouping a structure in Product Finder Classic:
    • Only a single predicate (simple predicate or hierarchical predicate) is allowed in the tagger.
    • Only N tags of the same predicate are allowed. In the case of hierarchical tags, you have to select all the tags in the same hierarchy. In the same hierarchy, you can select multiple objects.
    • When the grouping criteria have a single predicate, the content is grouped according to all the values of the predicate.
    • When the grouping criteria have one or more tag values, the content is grouped according to all the selected values.

Modify the Expand Strategy

The strategy used for the tree expansion is the default defined in the Product Finder Preferences. It can be modified for each tab using the command provided in the action bar.

  1. In the Navigation section of the action bar, click Nothing but simplified geometry on local leaves .
    Visualize the simplified geometry of the node in the 3D area when expanding it down to its Representation level.
  2. In the Navigation section of the action bar, click Partial outer skin of each child .
    Visualize a partial indexed simplified geometry of the structure in the 3D area when expanding a node. Only the outer skin of each child is displayed with a variable quality. Move the quality slider to modify the number of rays intersecting the geometry to visualize. The higher the number, the less partial the geometry. Since the outer skin is computed by an index that may not be up to date, the displayed geometry might not exactly represent the design structure but it is faster to load.
  3. In the Navigation section of the action bar, click Indexed simplified geometry of all children .
    Visualize an indexed simplified geometry of the complete branch in the 3D area when expanding a node. Since the index may not be up to date, the displayed geometry might not represent the exact structure as it is saved in the database but it is faster to load.

The following table summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of the above strategies.

Strategy Advantages Disadvantages
Nothing but simplified geometry on local leaves Short computation, light use of memory No 3D on intermediate nodes
Partial outer skin of each child Short computation, light use of memory Dependent on the index, not complete (ray tracing strategy)
Indexed simplified geometry of all children Large use of memory Dependent on the index, long computation

You can use any combination of explore and expand strategies in any order.

Note: When you open more than one Product Finder Classic tab and switch between these tabs, the default Expand Strategy for the current Product Finder Classic tab may not be seen correctly in the action bar.

Expand With and Without Representations

You can activate or deactivate the retrieval of representations during an expansion operation.

  1. Explore an expanded product.
  2. Click Expand With and Without Representations .
    The icon changes to and a message appears.
  3. Click OK to dismiss the message.
  4. Click Expand All from either the context menu or View > Expand All. The product is now displayed without any representations.

    • Each time you want to expand a product without representations, you must click the icon to activate it.

    • Clicking either of these icons does not modify the expanded structure but only applies to future expands performed on the product displayed in the current tab. If another tab is open, you must repeat the operation in that tab.

    • The option last applied to a product (that is, to be expanded with or without representations), remains valid in any future session. This means that if you have several tabs open, the icon may change as you click from one window to another as it indicates the option that you last used on the content shown in the current tab.

    • Non-CATIA documents (for example, text documents, spreadsheets, etc.) are controlled by the Show Documents command.

Render Objects Transparent

The Ghost command allows you to make selected objects transparent, thereby simplifying visualization to critical areas of the digital mockup.

  1. If you are not already in In-place mode, then click Swap Turntable/In-place .
  2. Right-click and select Tree Expansion > Expand All or, in the View section of the action bar, click Expand All .
  3. In the View section of the action bar, double-click Ghost/No Ghost .
    The Ghost commands appear. Note: By having double-clicked the icon to enter the command, you will be able to use the command multiple times; otherwise, the command is one shot and will automatically stop after one Ghost status change.
  4. To set the command in Ghost mode, click Apply ghost effect .
  5. In the 3D or in the tree, click objects.
    The objects become transparent. In the tree, the transparent objects are indicated by a little ghost under the branch.
  6. To set the command in No Ghost mode, click Remove ghost effect .
    Tips:
    • In the 3D, you can place the mouse over an object and press F6 to render the object transparent.
    • In the 3D, you can place the mouse over an object and press F7 to remove the ghost effect for the object.
    • You can press F8 to remove the ghost effect for all objects.
  7. In the 3D or in the tree, click a transparent object.
    The object becomes opaque again.

  • The Ghost and No Ghost commands are one shot. To use the commands for a multiple number of objects, in step 2, double-click Ghost when you enter the command.
  • When you expand a node that is in Ghost mode in the tree, the ghost status will be applied to all its children.
  • The Ghost command also works in Turntable mode (though it has been designed to work in In-place mode).
  • Expand All is also not required; whatever the expand and collapse commands that have been performed, the Ghost command behavior will be the same.

Adjust the Horizontal Split

The Splitter vertically divides the Navigation app into two sections. You can adjust the Splitter position to modify the partition, which allows you to disengage space on the right-hand side.

To adjust the Splitter position, drag it right or left.
The horizontal split is adjusted accordingly.