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TEMPLOT 3D PLUG TRACK - To get up to speed with this experimental project click here.   To watch an introductory video click here.   See the User Guide at Bexhill West.

  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed. Some of the earlier pages of this topic are now out-of-date.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.
  • The Plug Track functions are experimental and still being developed.

    For an updated overview of this project see this topic.   For some practical modelling aspects of using Plug Track see Building 3D Track.

    The assumption is that you have your own machines on which to experiment, or helpful friends with machines. Please do not send Templot files to commercial laser cutting or 3D printing firms while this project is still experimental, because the results are unpredictable and possibly wasteful.

    Some pages of this and other topics include contributions from members who are creating and posting their own CAD designs for 3D printing and laser-cutting. Do not confuse them with Templot's own exported CAD files. All files derived from Templot are © Martin Wynne.

Admin: another Search option

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Martin Wynne

Admin
Location
West of the Severn UK
Info
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Enjoy using Templot?
Thanks.

Please do not send requests for help direct to me via email.

Post your questions on the forum where everyone can see them and add
helpful replies.
.
I have added yet another Search option, making now 4 different ways of searching Templot Club. The new one is called Exact search, and can be found on the lower navigation bar:

exact_search1.png


This one will search the topics only, not other sections of Templot Club, or the Companion pages.

Remember to choose whether you want to search the topic titles or the full topic text.

"Exact search" means what it says, you can enter the exact text that was posted including punctuation marks, etc., like this:

exact_search3.png


and it finds the post in which I wrote that, and the two places where it was quoted by others.

Exact searching makes it much easier to find hyphenated words, technical terms, numeric data, file names, etc:

nickel-silver , 00-SF , flat-bottom , 16.5mm , check_rails.png , 1/8" , B-7.5 , 0-MF , loose-heel , 1:32​

Another big advantage of this option is that it will search for 2 and 3-letter words and abbreviations, such as P4 or LMS:

exact_search2.png


However, it is not restricted to whole words, so searching for EM also finds "email", "remain" , etc. Which is not very helpful.



To summarise the other search options:

Full site search: searches the entire Templot web site, including the Companion and the archived old forum in addition to Templot Club. It may not always be fully up-to-date because it relies on me to run the indexing script and post the results. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Search database: this is the native XenForo search function for Templot Club. It includes numerous options and filters, especially if you click the Advanced option. It's very useful apart from one infuriating restriction -- Allow 3-letter words: No. It won't search for anything shorter than 4 letters. Which means you can't search for GWR or P4. This is a well-known restriction on the MySQL database engine. There is a quite complex process available to change the limit, but it risks degrading the performance of the database so best left alone.

Search by tag: this does allow 3-letter words and could be very useful IF folks remembered to add meaningful tags to their topics. Not many do, including me, or remember to go back and edit them as a topic develops. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Exact search: as explained above. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Finally of course there is a 5th option, which sometimes gets the best results -- search Templot Club using Google. Allow 3-letter words: Yes. You need to add this exact string to the search terms to restrict the Google search to the Templot web site and Templot Club:

Code:
 +site:85a.uk/templot/

edit: and now a 6th option, the FreeFind plug-in. See below.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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message ref: 3664
To summarise the other search options:

Full site search: searches the entire Templot web site, including the Companion and the archived old forum in addition to Templot Club. It may not always be fully up-to-date because it relies on me to run the indexing script and post the results. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Search database: this is the native XenForo search function for Templot Club. It includes numerous options and filters, especially if you click the Advanced option. It's very useful apart from one infuriating restriction -- Allow 3-letter words: No. It won't search for anything shorter than 4 letters. Which means you can't search for GWR or P4. This is a well-known restriction on the MySQL database engine. There is a quite complex process available to change the limit, but it risks degrading the performance of the database so best left alone.

Search by tag: this does allow 3-letter words and could be very useful IF folks remembered to add meaningful tags to their topics. Not many do, including me, or remember to go back and edit them as a topic develops. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Exact search: as explained above. Allow 3-letter words: Yes.

Finally of course there is a 5th option, which sometimes gets the best results -- search Templot Club using Google. Allow 3-letter words: Yes. You need to add this exact string to the search terms to restrict the Google search to the Templot web site and Templot Club:

Code:
+site:85a.uk/templot/

I have added yet another Search option, the FreeFind plug-in which we had on the old Templot Club. This adds a few features not found in the other searches, especially its advanced search option and the site index.

1. Finds 2 and 3-letter words: Yes, but only whole words, so finds "EM" properly.

2. Updated daily, unlike the Full site search (which relies on me to run the indexer and update the web site).

3. Searches both Templot Club and the Companion, unlike the Club database searches, but unlike the Full site search it doesn't include the old Templot Club archive, so fewer out-of-date results.

4. The results page includes a Refine option to search within the first results for a more specific search.

5. The site index is useful if you are looking for information about specific Templot terms such as "contraflexure" or "sketchboard".

A few tips for using the FreeFind search: https://search.freefind.com/searchtipspop.html

freefind.png


FreeFind is supported by some limited advertising on its results pages. There is a paid-for version without advertising, but it is very expensive for not much difference.

cheers,

Martin.
 
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message ref: 4424
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