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Interface

1. Menus and Icons
2. Current Classification View
3. The Search Engine: the PartFinder tab
4. Search Result Display
> 5. Display and Selection of the Part Parameters: the PartDetail tab
6. Documents associated with the parts


Display and Selection of the Part Parameters: the PartDetail tab


The PartDetail interface is accessible in 3 ways:
  • By double clicking on a PartFinder thumbnail
  • By clicking on a thumbnail in PartFinder, then clicking on the PartDetail tab
  • By clicking on a thumbnail in PartFinder, then pressing the "Enter" key
Note:
A thumbnail must be selected in order for the PartDetail tab to become active.

The PartDetail tab is made up of 4 areas:

    1) Part identification record
2) Views of the part
3) Instance selector and insertion
4) Bill of Materials information



Part identification record

This record in HTML format is located to the left of the part image and the 3D viewer. In turn it has two tabs:
  • Dimensional drawing: this tab displays one or several dimensional drawings for the part selected. If the part does not have a dimensional drawing, this tab is grayed out,
  • Manufacturer/Standard: this tab presents the information on the part type: designation, standard and on the manufacturer if it comes from a manufacturer's catalog (name, address and telephone, web site). This tab may also be grayed if no data are available.

Note:

This record is in HTML format and can thus be printed by clicking on the right button of your mouse.


Views of the part (top)

"Picture" Tab
The "Picture" tab displays an enlarged thumbnail of the type of part that you have selected in the PartFinder. You can resize this thumbnail by moving the horizontal and vertical edges of the tab.

"3D Viewer" Tab
This allows display of the part selected in a dynamic 3D viewer. You can use this viewer to refine your search and your selection of the dimensions. The commands available are visible on the image below (these commands are accessible through the viewer menu and by a right click in the viewer):



Notes:
  • Axes positioning:
    By default the axes are drawn in the part, at the outset (see image above). With this option, they can be displayed outside the part.
  • Named views:
    Allows automatic orientation of the part according to one of the standardized views (top, bottom, left, right, front, back,) + isometric view.
  • Configuration:
    Opens the TraceParts configuration window on the view settings.
  • In case of difficulties with the 3D viewer display, check that the graphic card supports the OpenGL mode correctly.

"2D Viewer" Tab
This allows display of the part selected in a dynamic 2D viewer.



Like the 3D viewer it allows display of the part:
  • According to the 6 standardized views (the current view is displayed at the top of the viewer);
  • According to the isometric view;
  • According to a 2D projection of the part carried out from the 3D viewer image.

         
              In the 3D viewer           =>          Projection in the 2D viewer


Instance selector and insertion (top)

In order to be able to insert a part in your CAD software, you must select its dimensions and parameters in the table of dimensions displayed under the 3D viewer.

For certain parts, this selection is carried out in several successive steps.



When several steps are needed to define the instance, the transition from one step to another is done using the "First", "Previous", "Next" and "Last" buttons.

Note:
The CAD insertion is only possible when you have reached the last step of the instance selector.
In the last step, the "Insert Part" button is visible and active.


WARNING: Parts formerly Web2CAD:

Parts formerly Web2CAD can be seen in TraceParts, but can only be accessed from Internet.

A warning will be displayed for these parts in the instance selector as shown below:



Just click this link and the web browser will open and displayed the selected part.

Notes
  • No direct insertion for these parts. The selected part will be send by email with an attached zip file.
  • A free TraceParts Online account is required. This account can be created on first use.
Filtering the table of dimensions according to your advanced search criteria

When you use dimensional criteria in your advanced search, the table of dimensions displayed in the PartDetail tab is filtered according to your criteria, as shown in the following example:

  • You are searching for pneumatic jacks in catalog ASCO NUMATICS with a bore of 10 mm. You can then use the PartFinder interface in advanced search mode as shown below (the other criteria described in this example are optional).
  • You obtain the following filtered result after selecting a type of jack matching your criteria. The table of dimensions is filtered and only the bore of 10 mm is displayed.
  • You can display the full table of dimensions by simply clicking on the icon in the bottom-left corner. Simply click on this icon again to return to the filtered mode.



Bill of Materials information (top)

This selected information (description, standard, manufacturer, reference…) is automatically transmitted to your CAD software at the time of insertion of the part, in the current working language. Therefore it is quite possible to use it in the Bill of Materials extractions of your CAD assembly. To check this information before inserting the part, click on the "Bill Of Materials" button located bottom right, or on the "File \ Bill of Materials" menu, or press Ctrl+b



If you wish to retrieve all the Bill of Materials attributes of a part in a formatted file separately from the CAD file, for use in a spreadsheet program or a database software for instance, you must first select the option "Export the Bill of Materials info to a text file" through the "Insertion and Export" section of the configuration panel or by clicking on the icon, , then click on the "Export" button. The text file will then be exported in the selected format and by default in the same directory as the CAD file.

Notes:
  • The icon that appears at the beginning of each line indicates that the information comes directly from the TraceParts.
  • The icon can also appear at the beginning of the line instead of the . icon. It means that the information appearing for this field comes from an external database.
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