Scalable intelligent query-based interface to navigate and find industrial information on a visual interface

A method to facilitate device identification in a human machine interface (HMI) associated with an industrial automation environment, wherein the HMI is configured to display a plurality of graphical elements, each of the graphical elements representing a corresponding industrial device of a plurality of industrial devices of the industrial automation environment, the method comprising:

• receiving a user query selection of at least one query-building element;
• identifying one or more graphical elements of the plurality of graphical elements in the HMI that represent one or more corresponding industrial devices that correlate to the at least one query-building element;
• and
• visually distinguishing the one or more graphical elements that correlate to the at least one query-building element distinctly from a remainder of the graphical elements that do not correlate to the at least one query-building element by modifying graphical display properties of at least some of the plurality of graphical elements to visually emphasize the one or more graphical elements over the remainder of the graphical elements.

An apparatus to facilitate device identification in a human machine interface (HMI) associated with an industrial automation environment, wherein the HMI is configured to display a plurality of graphical elements, each of the graphical elements representing a corresponding industrial device of a plurality of industrial devices of the industrial automation environment, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer-readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media that,
• when executed by a processing system, direct the processing system to at least:
• receive a user query selection of at least one query-building element;
• identify one or more graphical elements of the plurality of graphical elements in the HMI that represent one or more corresponding industrial devices that correlate to the at least one query-building element;
• and
• visually distinguish the one or more graphical elements that correlate to the at least one query-building element distinctly from a remainder of the graphical elements that do not correlate to the at least one query-building element by modifying graphical display properties of at least some of the plurality of graphical elements to visually emphasize the one or more graphical elements over the remainder of the graphical elements.