When using the DELMIA Ortems Planning module sometimes, due to a dense planning environment, an operation you need to access cannot be selected. The operation could visibly be too small to select or difficult to find because the planning is extremely large, for example spread across hundreds of machines with thousands of operations across a very long planning horizon.
There are two functions that can be used to access (select/analyze/open/modify) an operation/WO without directly clicking on it:
- the Input Mode feature (useful when you can’t see the operation because it is too small or difficult to find in a large, dense planning environment).
- the Highlighting -> Catch feature (useful when you know where the operation is but it is too small to be selected or you wish to select multiple, small operations close to each other on the same machine)
For the Input Mode feature, you will need to know or be able to identify the Work Order (WO) ID of the Operation you wish to select/analyze/open/modify. For the example below, the WO ID is 0000302583 and there are many difficult to identify operations bunched together on machine CMLINE01.
Input Mode
From the Modes tab on the control ribbon, highlight Input Mode, then right click anywhere within the Gantt chart (except in the margin) to open the right-click menu. Choose the Display option, even if it already appears selected.
This will open the Select an operation window where you can enter the WO ID or, if you click on the browse button you can search or select the WO from the Select a WO window. You can also enter the specific Phase number and Split # if needed (keep the Split # as 0 if the operation/WO has no split).
Once you have found your WO, press OK to open the Operation description window to view or modify it or details on other tabs such as WO, WO detail etc.
Highlighting -> Catch
Using the same example, (again requiring you to know the WO ID), if the operation is partially visible but is too small to allow the mouse to hover over it, or it is amongst many other small operations you wish to analyze concurrently (there may be links between operations), you can use the Highlighting -> Catch functionality. Once again, right click anywhere within the Gantt chart (except in the margin) to open the right-click menu. Choose the Highlighting -> Catch option. If the Catch menu option is greyed out, be sure Input Mode is not selected from the Modes tab on the control ribbon.
With the Highlighting -> Catch function active, your mouse pointer becomes a selection tool and you can drag a square around the operations where your operation is located within the planning. This will grey out all other operations in the planning. To then view/find your specific operation/WO, switch to either an WO Focus Gantt Chart or an Op. (Operation) Focus Gantt Chart from the Display Menu. Below I have chosen a WO Focus Gantt Chart.
On either Gantt chart you choose, this will then list only the operations/WO’s you had selected using the Catch function, and you can clearly identify your specific operation/WO, allowing you to double click on the operation itself to view the Operation description window.
From an Op. (Operation) Focus Gantt Chart, double-clicking on the operation/WO ID directly in the margin will also open the Operation description window.
