How to find the files you need

Search helps you quickly find the files you need.  In Workbench, you can search on file name, author, revision and even the metadata that is stored within the CAD files themselves  (called Custom Properties in Solidworks)

Accessing Search

To search across all your projects use the Search on your Account page: 

To search within a project, it's easiest to go into the project and then click the magnifying glass in the top menu:

The search in both places works in the same way.  NOTE: if you are within a project and you would like to extend your search across all projects, simply check off "Search all projects" right below the text box.  Similarly, if you are searching from the Account page and you would like to search only within a project, check that project from the list on the left side.

Search Locally

From the Desktop App and SolidWorks Add-in you can get to your project folder locally and search for your files. With the Desktop App open, select the project where you want to search for your files locally and either select "Open Folder" in the main window or right click on the project name and select "Open Local Folder".

This will open the Windows Explorer of your containing project folder. Here you can use the window search at the top right to find a file in your project.

Tips for searching

When you start typing text into part of the file name into the text box, the results should instantly update to show you a list of matching file names.  To search by author, revision, or any of the metadata properties from your CAD files, use the checkboxes on the left side.

Metadata properties

The available criteria on the left side depends on the metadata properties of the files you've uploaded to Workbench. On upload, Workbench reads the properties of the files so properties like "Material" or "Supplier" are available to be searched.  Workbench reads metadata properties from a number of CAD systems, including:

Adding Tags to Your Files

You can quickly find the files you need by adding tags and other custom properties to them using your CAD system. For example, here is how to add tags to your files using SolidWorks®

1

Open the Custom Properties tab from the right-side panel, and click on More Properties

2

Add a property called Tags, make it a Text type and add any information you like to the Value field

Bill Of Materials (BOM) View

While viewing an assembly, click "View Bill of Materials" from the File Options menu:

You can customize the columns displayed and reorder them by clicking and dragging on the column headings. Once you have the view you like, you can export to CSV to import into your preferred sheet management software.

There are 3 views for the BOM: 

• Indented - shows parts and subassemblies in the arrangement they are in the part, with multiple instances combined and shown in the "Quantity" column
• Parts Only - shows only the part files
• Top View - shows only the part files that are under the top level assembly

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