Operators for attribute search

[thesleepofreason]

AC26 Update 2 introduced operators for attribute search.

Firstly. Due to issues described here - reflecting the path in the name of a folder/layer and using search is under current implementation an efficient way to manage layers. Therefore it would be very useful with "wildcard operators" for undetermined characters as it would make it quicker to limit the search to specific levels in the structure.

Eg. for a structure with A. B. C. D.  as nodes followed by A10 A20 etc. searching for "?." would return A. B. C. D. and "A??" would return all nodes under A10, A20 etc. If the ability to save searches was implemented it would make it even more efficient.

Secondly. The reference documentation is not updated regarding operator and the article is not clear. It says that and/or can be used between search terms which naturally is read as that the operator AND or the operator OR can be used but it seems that only inclusive OR can be used. The syntax for the exact search operator " is also unclear. It says that it should enclose a search term but it is apparently enough to use one " to modify the search and its unclear how it handles spaces. It would be good if available operators and their syntax could be properly described in the reference documentation.

[Gabor Almasi]

Hi Viktor,

We are working on a new interface for attribute related interfaces to make their usage easier. At this moment we are not planning to change the Search, but I hope the new UI will help you finding the right attributes faster.

In case of Search, the " " means AND so you have to type only OR if that's what you are looking for.

Regards,

Gabor

[thesleepofreason]

Hi Gabor!

The direct feedback is much appreciated and I look forward to UI changes that make it easier to manage attributes as there currently is a lot of unrealised potential.

Please note that this whish wasn't prompted by the need to find certain attribute quicker but the need to make attribute management easier. In particular for layers as they has a prominent role due to lack of an efficient way to control the logical structure of elements in the model and their visibility/intersectionality and editability. If properly implemented folders could alleviate a lot of the pain of relying on layers for this. 

Speaking frankly - from a user perspective I have very little understanding for the way folders was implemented and find it hard to see what real value it added that search didn't. Given the fact that it already has been "improved" once in update 2 and that you work on a new interface makes it obvious that it was realesed underdeveloped. I hope that any further/new development acknowledges is aimed to give us a truly hierarchical, intuitive and efficient interface for managing attributes. 

Related posts:
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes-forum/Flawed-Attribute-Management-Feature/td-p/344127

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes-forum/Flawed-Attribute-Palette-Dialog-Interface/td-p/3446...
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes-forum/Why-doesn-t-attribute-folders-display-similar-to-na...
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Setup-License-forum/BUG-Empty-layer-name-field-causes-crash/td-p...
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes-forum/Inconsistent-UI-for-deleing-unused-layer/td-p/36833...
https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishes-forum/Options-for-attribute-folder-deletion/td-p/368336

[DGSketcher]

Surely the Search function should be using global code in AC and I fully agree wildcards should be part of the search interface. I asked for this during AC26 beta for the Navigator but it was too late to implement. Wildcards aren't a new thing, and they don't need reinventing, they just need to follow established convention... https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/examples-of-wildcard-characters-939e153f-bd30-47e4-a763-6...