Catalog Explorer is an interface used to view and manipulate an electronic catalog containing drawing symbols and their associated properties. Conceptually, Catalog Explorer resembles a manufacturer's catalog with pictures of parts to build a plant. The catalog tree view contains drawing items organized by item type that reflects the folder structure under the Symbols folder in the reference data and also items designated by users as Favorites. Catalog Explorer includes the following features for easy navigation:
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Favorites section
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Quick Catalog
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Flags used to mark catalog items for searching
The following issues can occur when opening a drawing in Smart P&ID:
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The first time Catalog Explorer is opened for a new plant, it displays in a disabled state.
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If a symbol is added or updated in Catalog Manager, the symbol appears as disabled in Catalog Explorer.
If the problem occurred because the user has read-only access rights to the Smart P&ID reference data folder, an administrator with 'Full Control' permissions in Options Manager must run the Generate Symbol Images command in Options Manager in order to update the symbol images and the CatalogExplorerSettings.bin file in the reference data folder. See Generating Symbol Images.
If Catalog Explorer displays in a disabled state after you copied existing Smart P&ID reference data from another location; for example, when creating a new plant and P&ID application from custom templates, the CatalogExplorerSettings.bin file in the reference data folder must be deleted before any drawings are opened. This ensures that when a drawing is opened, the software creates a new CatalogExplorerSettings.bin file with updated file paths so that Catalog Explorer opens properly and allows symbol placement.