Search

Search helps you find industrial data across your organization in CDF, including assets, time series, files, events, and engineering diagrams. Preview a result to see its properties and related data, then open it in Charts or Canvas for further analysis.

​

Start a search

In the Flows workspace, navigate to the Home page or the Search tool:

​

Filter and sort your search results

To help you find exactly what you need, you can filter and sort your search results. ➀ Categories — filter the results by data categories, for example, to see only matching time series. ➁ Location — select the locations you want to see results from. ➂ Filters — select one or more Filters to further refine the results for a category. ➃ Sort — click any of the column headings to sort the results. ➄ 3D — open a 3D model to explore physical assets, such as rigs or locations. Refer to Browse 3D for more information.

​

Preview your search results

Select a result to inspect it in the right-hand sidebar. The preview panel has two tabs, Overview and Properties, so you keep the item’s context in one place. You can also open the item in Charts or Canvas for further analysis. ➀ Resize — drag the edge of the panel to the left to view items in full screen. ➁ Overview — view related data for the selected item, such as a file preview, Time series, or Activities. Items you can preview will be opened by default. ➂ Properties — view a list of all properties for the item, including extra groups when the same data instance exists in more categories than the one you selected. Use the search field to find a property by name or value, and expand a property to open a linked item. You only see categories included in your current location filter. ➃ Category — select which category Overview shows data for. Properties always shows all categories. ➄ Open in Charts/Canvas — open the item in Charts or Canvas for further analysis, or download a file. Search remembers expanded sections and your scroll position for the rest of your session, even if you close and reopen the preview panel.

​

Understanding categories and tree view

When you search for assets, you’ll notice different ways to organize and view your results.

​

Categories help you focus your search

Categories group similar types of equipment or assets together. When you select a category like “Pumps” or “Sensors”, you’ll see only items of that type in your results.

​

Tree view shows how assets connect

Tree view displays how your assets are organized hierarchically, for example, showing that a pump belongs to a specific system, which belongs to a plant location. Search results and Tree view show the full asset hierarchy even when it’s split across different categories. Items from other categories appear grayed out so you still have full context. For example, if you’re viewing “Pumps” but a pump’s parent system is in the “Systems” category, that parent appears grayed out. The grayed-out items are still clickable and interactive.

​

Download instances and relationship lists

You can download lists of data instances from search results and from related data sections on the instance page as a CSV file. All CSV files include audit information: who downloaded, when, and a source URL that links back to the search page in CDF. Anyone with permission to view those search results can follow the link. Downloads from related data sections also include the properties (metadata) of the instance that owns the relationship. Both search results and downloads are limited to 1,000 instances due to an API limit, even if the total number of matches exceeds that.

​

Download instances

​

Download relationship lists

​

Upload files

To upload files directly in Search, an admin must configure the space for file uploads. Once the space is configured, you can upload files directly in Search. Files may take a moment to appear after uploading.

​

Work with PDF files

You can find information in PDF files using AI document analysis and text search. On the Preview tab, you can: ➀ Explore with AI — use AI to summarize and ask questions about the PDF file. ➁ Find text — search for a specific word within the PDF file. Matches are highlighted, and you can browse through the results.

​

Not finding what you’re looking for?

Check your spelling and make sure you’ve selected the correct location. You’ll only see items that you have access to. Verify with your internal help desk or the CDF admin that you have access to the data you’re looking for.

​

Supported file formats

Documents Preview supports the following file formats:

​

Further reading

• Charts — visualize and analyze time series data.
• Canvas — collect and share data on a collaborative canvas.
• Browse 3D — explore physical assets in a 3D model.
• Flows workspace — work with AI document analysis and the other tools in the workspace.