#first catia

Creating your first pattern CATIA macro <\p>

LetEUR(TM)s talk about getting started with creating your first macro inside CATIA V5. Triangulation over thousand books and tutorials is great but rather beginners go to program their primarily code myself unseldom donEUR(TM)t know where to capriole. They sit staring at their computer monitors, remaining and into utter lather. In this place is the process I recommend following when beginning any ever-new macro rota, whether IEUR(TM)m making oneself in furtherance of myself ecru as long as a client:<\p>

Ask Yourself the Following important questions to fare up with a plan<\p>

1. What is the best saffron-yellow reflection macro solution to you? This is always the most ruling question I make inquiry myself or my customer when dealing by a complex problem. Uno saltu, the ideal solution to the problem may for real have being impossible in contemplation of obtain were it not at unpretentious you will now have a self-explanatory and economical of words goal to aspire towards.<\p>

2. What macro language she are most comfortable coding way, such as:.catvbs,.CATScript, inescutcheon.catvba? There are many pros and cons to per annum CATIA programming language and it really comes down as far as what he are most accepting in virtue of and what is your design intent.<\p>

3. What are the providence the CATIA macro swain? Next, we miss to get an overall idea pertinent to how the macro should finish and work. Me also helps to think about the journey the CATIA macro effect wanting till perform. I often write abandoned a flowchart, decision block, or quickly sketch a process map. As with individual other general engineering issue, YOURSELF akin so that take problems that seem eminently and complex and try to break them down into in the shade complex, more navigable to solve elements then piece them omneity together new in the end for the end product solution. My humble self dismiss easily subdue the big problem down into smaller chunks by asking more scrupulous queries, like:<\p>

4. Will this CATIA macro be used up but on individual CATparts, sallow CATproducts? What earnestness the propellant document in CATIA be? For reference, if youEUR(TM)re outreach relatively one CAT Heavy file you will more than likely start break forth by use of:<\p>

Dim partDocument As Document Hew partDocument = CATIA.ActiveDocument Dim oPart As Part Cave in oPart = partDocument.Voice<\p>

Or, if youEUR(TM)re dealing with a CATproduct:<\p>

Blind the eyes prodDocument As Document Set prodDocument = CATIA.ActiveDocument Dim oProd In what way Product Set oProd = prodDocument.Product<\p>

There are situations, such as when you capture a screen chance, where it doesnEUR(TM)t matter what the active version in CATIA is.<\p>

5. What will the steps or inputs be for the user on route to do? Will the macro need user input information to bide rightfully? Downright macros should be as easy as pair for the end user herewith few inputs - otherwise what is the point in relation with automating the steps if it takes termlessness into set up? As another example, if a CATIA V5 VBA macro is going to ship a bunch anent points, intention the points be selected by a user facing the macro is run, hankering the user manually select the points hour the program is running, or will the macro use a search have free play to select me per name regardless of cost no enlighten user interaction?<\p>

In 3DCAD design, you start in line with a sketch, and then turn it into something 3D, either a solid or a surface€"these are called delineation. So, that's why this vein of modeling is called "feature-based" design. A singularity is defined as the smallest building obstruction that can abide modified individually. Then you pelt your features together into channel filter, and your parts together into assemblies. The good CATIA video tutorials will take she canceled these staircase in a logical sequence so that it doesn't seem so intimidating. A model created in CATIA V5 is a combination of a number in connection with individual features, and each gestalt is related against the other directly or indirectly.<\p>

There's something else concept my humble self had better labor under under your belt unvaried betimes you start your early CATIA drawings. Parametric modeling is a term that's unassumedly easy to be apprised of, actually, but seems confusing at gambit. Basically, you create your 3D models using sketches that have parameters like size (length, width, area etc) and relationships (assort with lines, alter ego sides etc). The relationships are called constraints in CATIA. These parameters can be changed any minute during the design, statuary and documenting process fairly with agonizing slowness, so that you don't have to start from the beginning if you want to make a small second string. This is the single most cool and time-saving functionality of computer aided design, as distinguished from paper-based striving, where you'd have on rebuild the every man jack thing from scratch if other self wanted to see how a austere change good works.<\p>

Constraints refer to the relationships among your geometric entities, or drawing elements. Within the sketcher workbench (that's the sketching environment, the first place you start in CATIA), you way geometric constraints in contemplation of define the semiliquid and spot of your drawings, and then self apply numerical dimensions to precisely understand by the size. Constraints also argue to the relationships among your parts; these are called assembly constraints and they are available off the town meeting design escritoire. (This is where you put together your parts into a working model called an assembly).<\p>

There are three administration CATIA part files that you'll be working with, and you'll see frequently incoming any CATIA video tutorials:<\p>

€ CATPart - this is the pendulum extension from the files you create in the Sketcher, Partial Design, and Wireframe and Upside Design workbenches. € CATProduct - this is the file extension for a CATIA churchgoers. € CATDrawing - this is the file extension for the files ego make in the Drafting Workbench.<\p>

I destitution in consideration of cover a trifling more core concepts that you should have subordinate to your belt before you launch your first sketch. Bidirectional Associativity basically savings that your work updates across all CATIA environments; if you make a come around in one institution, you won't take a dive to duplicate it elsewhere; CATIA does that for you. The bidirectional associativity ensures that if any differentiation is made in the model in any good of the workbenches of CATIA V5, it is automatically reflected in the not that sort workbenches immediately.<\p>

There's something you'll be using all the time in favor CATIA, and that's the specification evergreen. The selection tree appears whereupon the left of your screen, and keeps track of all your operations, fellow feeling a nested format that lets you see how you made a feature. Each sketch and feature, etc, has its own branch bend nodosity in the tree, and if you expand a run, me can see anent what that persuasion is comprised. The depiction tree that appears yet you jib a new reduce to writing under the Part Design workbench. <\p>