Configure spatial searches for structures

Spatial search for structures offers many benefits to engineers and designers, including quickly identifying parts that are in close proximity to each other. Thus, you must configure spatial search for structures. This topic explains the steps required for configuring spatial search for structures.

The following installation and configuration steps must be completed before you can run spatial searches:

1. Install the Spatial Search feature when you run Teamcenter Environment Manager (TEM).
2. If you have not already done so, install Dispatcher translation services with Teamcenter Environment Manager (TEM), including the Spatial Search Indexer and Spatial Search Translator features. If you are creating JT files on the same system as Teamcenter is installed on, ensure you install these services before creating JT files to search.
3. Install a license key that includes an RDV (Context Management) license.
4. To enable the cacheless search mechanism, set the QS_QSEARCH_ENABLED site preference to True. If you use appearance searches, set this preference to False.
5. To enable spatial (box or proximity) searches, set the QS_SPATIAL_ENABLED site preference to True.
6. If you search against TruShape files that Teamcenter creates from CAD data, you must also set the QS_TRUSHAPE_GENERATION_ENABLED site preference to True. This enables the generation of the TruShape data required for spatial searches; the generation process may take an appreciable time when first enabled. Set this preference to False if you use the Teamcenter Integration for NX, as TruShape files are automatically saved in the NX datasets. (NX must also be configured to save TruShape data.)
7. If you search against existing JT files, you must also set the QS_BBOX_GENERATION_ENABLED site preference to True. This enables the generation of the bounding box data required for spatial searches; the generation process may take an appreciable time when first enabled. Set this preference to False if you use the Teamcenter Integration for NX, as bounding boxes are automatically generated. However, set this preference to True if you use non-NX CAD integrations or several CAD tools.
8. If you are upgrading from a previous release of Teamcenter, use the create_or_update_bbox_and_tso utility to convert your existing data for spatial searching. This utility creates bounding box and TruShape data from CAD data files or JT files.
9. To specify the unit of measure for a proximity search in a Smart Discovery-indexed structure, set the RDV_user_defined_units_of_measure site preference to METERS, MILLIMETERS, INCHES, or UNKNOWN. If you specify UNKNOWN, the search is performed in the units of the assy_units property set on the top level BVR. If this property is not set, the search is performed in the units specified in the PS_assume_legacy_transform_units site preference.
10. Set the StructureManagerIncludeSubComponentsForSpatialSearch site preference to determine if the components of subassemblies are considered as targets. If it is set to true, all components of the selected subassembly are included as targets of a proximity search, in addition to the subassembly itself. If it is set to false, only the subassembly is the target of a proximity search, not any of its components. Typically set to false if you want to search for parts in the vicinity of geometry at the assembly level (for example, in the case of wire harnesses).

Note: If you change the settings of any of these site preferences, you must restart the server to clear cached data and restart the services.