In Enterprise Studio, you can search for elements in a model package, model, a diagram, view or a selection. Enterprise Studio has a basic search function and an advanced search function for searching elements. Executed search commands are automatically saved and can easily be executed again by selecting them in the Search for box at the top of the search window. Additionally, the model browser has a search box that supports searching for object and relation names in the models present in the model browser. The search results can be presented in the Worksets pane, the Messages pane, or in a view.

Search results presented in the Worksets pane (top left), Messages pane (top right), and highlighted in a view (bottom)

On this page:

Basic search

To perform a basic search, follow these steps:

1. In the model browser, select the component in which you want to search. It can be a model package, model, view or diagram, folder or layer, or a selection of elements.
   
   
2. In the Home ribbon tab, click the  in Find, or press Ctrl+F.
   
   
3. In the search window, type the search text.
   
   
   
   
4. In results in, select the output format in which the the results must be presented:
   
   Views: The results are highlighted in on or more views. This is a useful option if you want to search in specific views. If you choose this option, make sure that the relevant views are open before you start the search, otherwise they will not be highlighted.
   
   Message box: The results are presented in the Messages pane. If you click a search result in this window, Enterprise Studio will select the corresponding element in the model browser and show it in the diagram or view (if applicable).
   
   Worksets: The results are presented in the Worksets pane in a newly created workset. You can use this search result as a starting point for other actions, for example to start a new search on these objects to refine the search.
   
   
5. Click Search. The result following the example used in this procedure is the following:
   
   
   

Advanced search

Advanced search is useful if you want to look for certain properties and attributes of elements, or even for specific values of properties and attributes.

To perform an advanced search, follow these steps:

1. In the model browser, select the component in which you want to search. It can be a model package, model, view or diagram, folder or layer, or a selection of elements. Depending on the expected search result, make sure to include the proper components in your scope. For example, if you search for an object property and want the result to be shown in the view, make sure to include the objects that need to be searched.
   
   
   
   
2. On the Home ribbon tab, click Find > Advanced find, or press Ctrl+Shift+F.
   
   
3. In the search window, specify the profile, attribute or value that objects you are searching for should or should not have.
   
   
   
   
   1. If the objects you are searching for should NOT have the property or attribute, select not.
      
      
   2. On the metamodel tab(s), select the property or attribute you are looking for.
      
      If you have selected the model package as a starting point for your search and the package contains models with different metamodels, you will see a separate tab for each metamodel. This offers you the possibility to specify a property or attribute and value for each metamodel.
      
      

   3. If you are searching for a specific value of the property or attribute, select with value equal to or containing, and specify the value in the box next to it. The way you can specify the value depends on the chosen property or attribute: manually enter a value, select a value from an options list, or select an element from the model. The latter is not working.

      If you are searching for a textual attribute, Enterprise Studio does not distinguish between capitals and regular characters. For example, if you are looking for all objects that contain the word "claim" in the attribute "documentation", then the results also shows those objects where the word Claim or CLAIM occurs in the documentation field.

      
      

4. In results in, select the output format in which the the results must be presented:
   
   Views: The results are highlighted in one or more views. This is a useful option if you want to search in specific views. If you choose this option, make sure that the relevant views are open before you start the search, otherwise they will not be highlighted.
   
   Message box: The results are presented in the Messages pane. If you click a search result in this window, Enterprise Studio will select the corresponding element in the model browser and show it in the diagram or view (if applicable).
   
   Worksets: The results are presented in the Worksets pane in a newly created workset. You can use this search result as a starting point for other actions, for example to start a new search on these objects to refine the search.
   
   
5. Click Search. If the search has results, they will be shown as specified in your search.
   
   
   
   If you have chosen to show the result in views, the result is presented as a highlight view. To remove this highlight view again, click Highlight on the View ribbon tab.

Examples of advanced search

Below are a few other examples of advanced search.

Search for elements in the model that have an "Asset" profile attribute with value "medium"

Search for elements in the model that have a metric of type "Money"

Search for elements with fixed process costs of € 6.00

Saving search settings as a viewpoint

You can save the search settings as a search viewpoint. With a search viewpoint you can execute the specific search command again and again, without the need to start the search function and specifying the search parameters (like the attribute you want to search and the value it should have) or selecting the previous search command. 

When you execute a search command, an unsaved search viewpoint is created in the Viewpoints pane. As long as the viewpoint is unsaved, it is available in a model package for the duration of the tool session. If a viewpoint is saved, it will remain available on the model package, even after closing the model package. For more information, see Saving viewpoints in the model.

Searching via the model browser

The model browser has a search box that allows you to search for elements by their name. By default, the search function supports looking for objects (including models, folders, layers etc.). If you also want to search for relations or in a specific metamodel, the Search options ribbon tab has additional options to select. The tab will be shown the moment you click the search box.

Searching in the model browser is not case-sensitive, but it is sensitive to accented characters like é, ï, â, etc. For example, if you search for the term mer, the result will show all hits with exactly mer, not with mèr or mér or another accent.

To search for an object or relation, click the search box and type the word you are looking for. The results are immediately shown highlighted in the model browser. If the models reach a certain size, the results are no longer displayed automatically. In that case, press the Enter key or click the search button next to the search box to see the results.

In the figure below, the search term is "customer" and all objects are shown in which the term "customer" occurs.

Searching for relations

Please take note that when searching for a relation, the relation needs to have an explicit name in order to be found. Most relations just have their type name and endpoints and do not have a name assigned. In the figure below, the option Search for relations has been selected. The search term "customer" now results in objects and relations that have "customer" in their name. As can be seen in the figure below, the name of the first relation shown in the search results is an explicitly set name, as shown on the relation in the view on the right.

Limiting a search by metamodel

By default, all metamodels are included when searching, to make sure that the entire model package is included in the search. In practice, you likely have models of only one or a few metamodels in your model package. If you have more than one metamodel in your model package, you can limit your search by excluding metamodels. Just clear all the metamodels in the search ribbon that should be skipped when searching. When performing a search, only the results of the selected metamodel(s) will be shown. In the figure below, all metamodels are included on the left and on the right only the ArchiMate metamodel is included. You can see the difference in the search results.