Search Shapes Up

摘要

THE SEARCH FUNCTIONS in most product data management (PDM) and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems rely heavily on your knowledge of the object you're trying to find. They use the fragmented information you provide-a partial file name, a classification, usage history or associated projects-as guiding criteria to search across the enterprise database, then present you with a list of items containing the stated attributes. The method works well with text or other data that fits nicely into a file folder structure, but it proves far less efficient with CAD data.