Find Material Command

Default Shortcut: f + m
Isolates members which contain a particular material from other members which do not contain that material.

1 . Invoke Find Material by clicking the Find Material icon, which is pictured above. The icon can be found on the
Tools page > Selection section.

Alternative: Invoke Find Material using the Find Tool by searching the command name and clicking the Find Material icon, which is pictured above.

2 . A selection window opens showing a list of submaterial piecemarks for all materials in your current Job.

Method 1 : Select (1) one submaterial mark from the list and click the "OK" button.

Method 2 : Double-click the submaterial mark that you want.

Alternative : Press the " Cancel " button to end the Find Material command.

3 . One of the following options happens:

Option 1 : Find Material displays members in your current view that incorporate the selected submaterial and hides all other members. When the members are displayed in one of the three solid forms, the selected submaterial is displayed in magenta color. Other materials that make up that member are displayed in their normal colors.

  

Option 2 : Isolated members with the selected submaterial are not visible in your current view. Uncheck ( ) or adjust Depth Checking, or Open ( Ctrl + o ) a different view.

Option 3 : An alert window appears explaining "[selected submaterial piecemark] does not currently exist in this structure" or "[selected submaterial piecemark] does not currently exist in this structure but does exist on an assembly." Click the "OK" button.

4 . To exit Find Material:

4a . While in Find Mode , invoke Find Material using any of the methods described in step 1.

4b . The submaterial piecemark selection window opens. Press the " Cancel " button.

4c . All members that were previously hidden are now shown. Submaterials that were previously displayed in the color magenta are now displayed in their normal colors.

  • If your model is not showing any members, invoke the Find Material command again and click Cancel on the submaterial piecemark selection window.

  • You may find that this tool works best in an isometric view of your entire 3D model.

  • Click the "Hide" button on the submaterial piecemark selection window and use the Hide Items options to filter the list of piecemarks.
  • Members and materials isolated by Find Material appear in the Model Tree.
  • If you are too zoomed out in your 3D erection view to see the isolated members, right-click in space (with nothing else selected) to bring up the shortcut menu and click "Zoom to Fit".
  • Submaterial piecemarks that do not exist in the structure or on an assembly are stored in the job until they are manually removed using Utilities > DeleteRelease Submaterial Marks.