SolidCAD Insights

Take the Next Step with Meridian: Improve Access, Oversight, and Operational Clarity

Where Engineering Knowledge Begins

The Meridian Explorer Home Page is more than a starting point — it is a structured gateway into engineering knowledge.

Within a secure web-based environment, users can quickly orient themselves through familiar navigation patterns and intuitive dashboards. The interface is designed to reduce friction, allowing users to focus less on locating information and more on applying it.

From the moment the Home Page loads, Meridian Explorer provides access to the tools needed to search, refine, and retrieve technical documentation across repositories.

 

 

Understanding the Home Page

The Home Page serves as a central hub that organizes how users interact with engineering data. It presents structured entry points into repositories through Views, Favorites, Saved Searches, and Dashboards.

Each view represents a curated window into the repository, configured by system administrators to align with organizational workflows.

 

Typical Home Page components include:

• Views for structured document access
• Favorites for frequently accessed information
• Saved searches for repeated queries
• Dashboards displaying repository metrics

 

Managers and technical teams can use dashboards to visualize document completeness, repository growth, and other performance indicators that support better decision-making.

 

Opening Views: Structured Windows into the Repository

In Meridian Explorer, a View represents a filtered perspective of repository data configured to support specific use cases.

Views may represent:

• a specific facility
• a document type
• an asset class
• a workflow stage

 

Multiple views can exist within the same repository, each tailored to support different roles.

By organizing data through views, Meridian Explorer allows users to engage with large document environments in manageable and meaningful ways.

 

Dashboards: Visualizing Repository Intelligence

Dashboards transform repository data into visual insight.

Through tables, charts, graphs, and gauges, users can understand trends such as:

 

• document volume growth
• repository activity patterns
• data completeness metrics

 

These visual summaries allow managers and administrators to evaluate the health and structure of engineering information without needing to manually analyze datasets.

 

 

Search as a Structured Experience

Finding engineering documentation is rarely a linear process. Meridian Explorer supports multiple navigation methods, allowing users to approach information from different angles depending on what they already know.

Search capabilities include:

 

• navigation views
• property-based browsing
• Folder-based exploration
• Form-based search

 

Each method provides a different way of progressively narrowing large document sets into relevant results.


Navigation Views: Exploring Through Hierarchy

Navigation views allow users to browse through structured hierarchies of properties. As selections are made, the system dynamically refines the available options, ensuring that each step leads to relevant results. This approach is particularly useful when users are uncertain of exact document properties but recognize meaningful attributes when presented. The experience feels guided rather than overwhelming.


Property-Based Navigation: Refining Results Dynamically

Property navigation allows users to build search filters progressively using metadata values such as document type, asset identifier, or classification.

As property values are selected, results automatically update, ensuring that every refinement leads to a smaller and more relevant dataset.

This approach reduces the complexity of searching large repositories while preserving flexibility.

 

Folder-Based Browsing: Familiar Structure, Enterprise Control

For users who prefer traditional navigation patterns, Meridian Explorer supports browsing through structured folder hierarchies similar to Windows Explorer environments.

 

Different object types — documents, tags, and projects — may have distinct folder structures that reflect operational logic. This familiarity helps accelerate adoption while maintaining enterprise governance.

 

 

Form Search: Precision Through Structured Criteria

Form search enables multi-layered filtering through structured fields.

Users can combine:

 

• free text search patterns
• dropdown selections
• lookup lists
• partial property values

 

This layered approach enables highly refined search queries capable of isolating specific documentation within large repositories.

Even incomplete information can lead to precise results.

 

 Viewing the rendition: Which can be downloaded or Printed. 


Understanding Tags: Connecting Documents to Real-World Assets

Tags create a powerful connection between engineering documentation and physical assets.

Derived from maintenance management systems, tags act as structured identifiers linking documents to equipment, systems, or infrastructure components.

These relationships allow users to:

 

• retrieve documentation tied to specific assets
• maintain alignment between engineering data and operational systems
• support maintenance and inspection workflows

 

Tags function as proxies for asset records, ensuring documentation remains contextually meaningful.

 


Projects: Managing Change Through Structured Workflows

Projects represent controlled environments where working copies of documents evolve through defined workflows.

Project folders can contain revised versions of documents that may eventually replace or merge with master records.

 

Each project may include:

• project-specific metadata
• workflow stages
• version relationships

 

This structured approach ensures changes are traceable, auditable, and aligned with business processes.

 


Collections: Organizing Knowledge for Reuse

Collections allow users to group documents based on search results or manual selection. They function as reusable sets of information that can support reporting, workflows, or collaboration.

 

Two types of collections exist:

Static Collections

Static collections contain manually curated lists of documents. They remain unchanged unless explicitly modified.

 

 

Dynamic Collections

Dynamic collections store search criteria rather than document lists. As new documents meet the criteria, they are automatically included.

This distinction allows organizations to maintain both stable reference sets and evolving knowledge groupings.

 

 

A Meridian collection is a set of documents that can be created for various purposes, reused, edited, and optionally shared with other users. Meridian allows you to save the results of a Find search as a collection. You can then use the collection with most commands such as Build Report, Draft Print, and workflow transitions.

    • Only the Find search method supports saving searches as collections.
    • A search that includes results from other vaults cannot be saved as a collection.

Collections can be of two types:

    • Static: A saved list of document names. A static collection can be created as a new, empty list or with the results of a search. Individual documents can then be manually added to the collection and selected documents removed from the collection. New documents that are created and that also match the search criteria are not automatically added to the collection.
    • Dynamic: Saved search criteria, not the search results, are saved and then re-evaluated when you or others view the collection. New documents that are created and that also match the search criteria are automatically added to the collection. Non-matching documents cannot be manually added to the collection.

Every Meridian user has a permanent, personal static collection named My Search Results that can be reused and to which the results of other searches can be added.

A dynamic collection can be shared with other users, used as the scope for System Administrator-defined reports, and used as a starting page for read-only PowerWeb users.


A Structured Approach to Engineering Information

Meridian Explorer demonstrates that document access does not need to be complex to remain controlled.

Through structured navigation, flexible search tools, and asset-connected relationships, users can move confidently through large repositories of technical information.

 

The interface becomes more than a search tool — it becomes a framework for understanding engineering knowledge in context.

Clarity emerges not from reducing information, but from organizing it intelligently.