[Request for Feedback] Searching in Dynamo

Just came across this whilst trying to search for Plane.ByBestFitThroughPoints:

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Only searching BestFit yields results:

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I would have expected that both the first two examples would find it.

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One day I hope it turns into “Dynamo is great and I can find things so easily I started not using Python!” :wink:

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Sorry @solamour, it is too late already

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I agree with the search not being great, but my quote varies slightly.

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and I preach Monocle simple search (and the rest of the tools) every single day I get to show dynamo :grin: @john_pierson

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6 posts were split to a new topic: Thoughts about template files/ parts

Really enjoy the thoughts and examples everyone has placed. I still haven’t seen one of my “favorites” come up.

The GetParameterValueByName, SetParameterValue and just Parameters always throw me off. Searching for these is a wild ride, and seem to always happen when doing a live demo, which really boosts your confidence. I know it reiterates many other comments, but to me, these are among the most important nodes, and having to be exact to have them appear is the worst.

Get and Set Parameter are two sides of the same coin, yet there names are off just enough to cause confusion. It would be nice if they all just came up with the word parameter, which yields results related to curves, not elements. It would also be nice to allow for pluralization of words as most of the time you are setting or getting multiple parameters.

Appreciate you taking the time to ask us!

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Happen to be looking for some Curve.Trim nodes today… curve, curve trim, and curvetrim don’t return any of the Trim nodes. Only trim and curve.trim return anything useful.

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Have you search for a coordinate system node lately? There is a 99% chance you won’t find what you’re after by typing; I just tell people to go to expand the shelf in the library and put in nodes manually. Meanwhile the designscript search for the same is an order of magnitude faster…

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A post was split to a new topic: Node components

I always have the same issue with finding the select elements button. if you type select it doesn’t come up. element select also doesn’t produce the result. I’m often trying to remember it and have to go to old scripts.

I’ve had similar search issues with getparametervaluebyname, element type, all elements of (type or category) anything by clockwork, archi-lab, or Rhythm nodes. search string only works half the time, oscillating between two options.

Then there’s the weird searches that work. Object will bring up string from object, but string will not. boo gives me filterbybooleanmask, but filter doesn’t. I can search current to get to the active view in current document, but not active or view.

Hopefully some of those help the cause.

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Warning suggests “Convert Units” but no node exists and the search returns nothing.
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“Convert By Units” will return its respective node but not ConvertByUnits.
“ConvertByUnits” will return its respective node but not Convert By Units.

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What you need to do FIRST is to standardize Node NAMING.
Second, the search would cover node names AND node descriptions (or make the latter optional with “expanded search”)

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First at all is, I think team need to define again node name standard, may node with standard is having space, many name nodes are standard with no space between word.
Example :

  • Select Model Element => It should be can follow standard SelectModelElement
    And then when user search, easy to consider search because at the moment :

  • With search Select Model Element => have result

  • With search SelectModel... => Nothing.

And then with create a new package, also have standard is recommended developer is following with name standard, it will be help first, and then can think for another algorithm to optimize search.

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A huge thank you to everyone who has passed in failing cases here, we are happy to report that with initial work we have solved all of the Dynamo core failures by implementing Lucene and indexing heavily into… search indexing :nerd_face:

Apache Lucene is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine library written in Java.

A handful of such successes show below with implementation in the right-click only search and failures currently in the Library search. Ongoing work will unify both and improve across the board :slight_smile:

Convert Units

String from Object

Coordinate System Origin

Curve Trim

List Join

Sneak peek of also seeing a mock-up of ability to search for Documentation in this search also (Such as Extended Node Help and Sample Files), referenced by the jarring icons :wink:

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Looks promising.

What would also be very helpful is the possibility to limit the search to nodes with a specific input type and/or output type. (I don’t think this is possible yet, correct me if I’m wrong).

Could be solved via checkboxes or additional input fields. Or by simply typing it into the search bar with “input:xyz” and “output:abc” in addition to the search word.

E.g:
“element output:string” will only return nodes that have “element” in the name or description AND have at least one output of type “string” / “strings”.
This should list nodes like “element.name” for example.

“Input:Double” should list every node with at least one number (double) as input.
And so on…

These are the basics. Of course you could extend this with the many possible input and output types, including those of custom packages perhaps.
E.g. a search for “input:parameter” would only show nodes that have at least one input of type “parameter”. In this case all types of parameter (e.g. also “FamilyParameter”). Of course you could also specify it in the search e.g. enter exactly “Revit.Elements.Parameter” where then also only these types are shown and no others.

I hope this is somehow possible to implement.

Thanks for the work so far.

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Hi,
some nodes became untraceable with the search engine, or they changed name?

Element Classes I believe.

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Ha thanks, good to know

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