FindEntity Command

Overview

The “FindEntity Command” searches the IFC file for an entity by its type name and selects
the node that was found in the Project View. It is useful in a large file where scrolling
the tree to the entity you want takes a long time.

The command can be started in any of the following ways:

1. Right-click the “Entities” node, or an entity node, in the Project View and choose
   “Find” from the context menu.
2. Enter “_CmdFindEntity” in the prompt window.
3. Enter its alias “findEntity” in the prompt window.

Usage

Here is an explanation of how the “FindEntity Command” is typically used:

1. Start the command. The “Find Entity” dialog is displayed.

2. Enter the entity type name you are looking for, for example “IfcColumn”.

3. Choose the options you need and start the search. The first entity whose name matches
   is selected in the Project View.

4. Search again to move on to the next match. The search continues from the entity that
   was found last, so repeating the search walks through the file.

Notes

• The search compares the whole type name, not a part of it. To match a part of a name,
  or several names at once, switch the search to a regular expression and use a pattern
  such as “Ifc.Profile.”.
• The search is over the type names of the entities in the file. It does not look at the
  attribute values of the instances. Use the “Search View Command” to search property
  sets.
• Only the node that was found last stays selected. Starting a new search clears the
  previous one.

Command Name

_CmdFindEntity

Alias

findEntity