Exercise 5: Changing the Find Similar Nearness Settings

Instead of filtering on additional attributes, you can change the criteria used for calculating nearness to take account of different requirements.

  1. Find records similar to Polypropylene (Copolymer, Conductive, 5% Carbon powder)

    On the PP datasheet, click Find Similar.

  2. Re-calculate the list of alternative materials, taking Electrical resistivity into account and prioritizing results with a resistivity that is the same or lower than the reference material.

    Click the Nearness settings link on the Records similar to dialog.

    Under Electrical Properties, select Electrical resistivity. Set it to 100% when Same or lower, and increase the Weighting factor to 2.

    Click OK to generate the new results.

These results are conceptually different to those from the previous exercise. We have ranked similar materials, taking into account the conductivity, but there is not a fixed upper limit as there was when filtering using the Limit Stage. Materials with a higher conductivity than the reference will still be included in these results.