Advanced search feature to find records across projects and menus

Advanced Search

This article explains how to use Advanced Search in WeldTrace to find records across your projects, ask questions about your welders, and rank projects, drawings and tags by what matters to you.
Advanced Search looks across everything you already have access to — welds, drawings, tags, procedures, welders, qualifications, materials, consumables, test reports, work packs, documents and more. It never returns a record you could not otherwise open.
    Advanced Search
    1. Click the magnifying glass in the top bar, on any page.
    2. Type your question in the Search box.
    3. Check this box if you would like to search within uploaded files (available only for the customers on the Enterprise plan and those using the AI features).
    4. Results appear as you type — there is no Search button to press.
    5. Press Escape or click outside the panel to close it.

    The Basics

     Every word must match

    When you type more than one word, a record has to match all of them — though not necessarily in the same field.
    1.  `SMAW carbon steel` will find records matching SMAW and carbon steel 
    2.  `316 pipe` will find records matching 316 and pipe 
    Adding a word always narrows the results. If you get too many, add another word.

    An identifier on its own

    Paste or type a number and WeldTrace finds it, whatever kind of record it belongs to.
    1.  `DRG-1234` will find the drawing or tag or material heat number with that number 
    2.  `WPQ-224` will find the welder qualification with that report number 
    Some other tips:
    1. Include a project number anywhere in your search and WeldTrace restricts the results to that project. For example,  `P-NEW cooler`  will find records matching "cooler" in project P-NEW only. The results summary confirms this by showing in P-NEW beside the count.
    2. Welders qualified for a procedure —  `welders qualified for WPS-101`  will find every welder qualified against that procedure, `welders qualified for SMAW` will find very welder qualified for any SMAW procedure and `welders qualified for carbon steel plate up to 1 inch` will find every welder qualified for the procedures matching that description.

    Notes:

    1. Both unit systems are searched. A procedure recorded in inches is found by a search written in millimetres, and the reverse.

    2. WeldTrace tells you how it read your search. The summary shows, for example, *qualified thickness range contains 25mm* — so you can see whether "up to 1 inch" was taken the way you meant.

    3. Material families such as carbon steel or duplex stainless are resolved from your own base metal library, so the answer reflects how your account classifies its metals rather than a fixed table.

    Searching Inside Uploaded Files

    WeldTrace can search the text inside uploaded documents — procedures, certificates, reports — not only their file names. This feature is available only for the customers on the Enterprise plan and those using the AI features.
    Search within uploaded files
    1. Open the search panel and enter the search term.
    2. Tick Search within uploaded files.
    3. Search as normal. File matches show the words around the match, so you can tell why a forty-page document was returned.

    Searching in Other Languages

    You can type your question in your own language. WeldTrace currently supports French, German, Dutch and Chinese apart from English.
    1.  `soudeurs qualifiés pour le DMOS WPS-101`  The same answer as the English question 
    2.  `Schweißanweisungen für Bleche über 25 mm Dicke`  Procedures qualified to at least 25 mm 

     If You Do Not Find What You Expect

    1. Take a word out. Every word must match, so one wrong word returns nothing.
    2. Check you have access. Search never shows records you cannot open. A colleague may see results you do not.
    3. Check the reading. If the summary shows a size or material you did not intend, rephrase that part.
    4. Try the identifier on its own. If a number finds the record but your sentence does not, the sentence is the problem.
    5. For file contents, tick the box. File text is not searched unless you ask for it.