Category: Tips & Tricks Series

Every organization has its own standards and requirements when it comes to designing in CATIA. To adhere to these standards and requirements, some changes need to be made in the software application settings. In this article, setting up of global environment using customization setting from single source is explained in detail.

Introduction:

• From selecting license while opening CATIA V5 to modifying shortcut keys for commands, all settings done in CATIA are saved as CATSettings. CATSettings files are created once a user does some customization. A single CATSettings file may contain multiple attribute values.
• To make sure that users meet key company design practices and industry standards, CATSettings need to be administered. For the same reason, many OEMs create their own environment in CATIA and ask vendors to use the same.
• CATSettings created by users are stored in CATUserSettingPath.
• CATSettings created by administrators are stored in CATReferenceSettingPath in environment file.

There are many advantages of customizing CATIA settings which are listed below:

1. It will lead to standardization of CAT Settings.
2. Unnecessary start up settings and configurations are avoided.
3. Default paths can be set which eliminates searching time.
4. Custom Environment is created.
5. Custom start parts and drafting standards are created.
6. Best practices are followed by users.

The following steps are performed to set up CATIA V5 variables:

1. Create a folder in the name of EDST_CATIA_Environment on network drive.
2. Create two more folders in the name of say CAT_COLLECTION_STANDARD and CAT_Refrence_settings_path in EDST_CATIA_Environment folder.
3. Click on CAT_Refrence_settings_path folder and copy the path from the Address
4. Environment Editor can be opened by clicking Start > All Programs > CATIA > Tools > Environment Editor V5 R29 (the release issued from the user company).
5. For setting new environment, click Environment ➜ New From and rename it as EDST_CATIA_Environment and click OK.
   

Environment is created and desktop icon is also generated for the same.

6. The new environment file location is saved at the location:

   C:\User\hostname\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv

7. Select Environment (EDST_CATIA_Environment), click on CAT_Reference_settings_path and right click on variable.

   Click on Edit Variable. Now paste the path copied earlier.
   

   Similarly, copy and paste the same path for CAT_COLLECTION_STANDARD.

8. Now save the modifications and exit the workbench.

   

   Now, the modified CATIA Environment is created successfully.

9. Copy Environment file from C:\User\hostname\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv and paste to the network drive. EDST_CATIA_Environment folder will be created.

The following are the steps to launch CATIA in Admin mode:

1. Copy and paste the CATIA icon (in this document EDS_CATIA_Environment) on desktop.
2. Rename EDS_CATIA_Environment to EDS_CATIA_Environment-ADMIN (only for reference)
3. Right click on EDS_CATIA­_Environment-ADMIN ➜ Properties
4. Search for CNEXT in target tab and change exe to CNEXT–Admin.exe
5. Change directory of Environment from “C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv“–nowindow to EDST_CATIA_Environment -direnv “Network Location“–nowindow for both EDS_CATIA_Environment and EDS_CATIA_Environment –ADMIN icons.
   Changing CATIA environment paths

   

   Now click EDS_CATIA_Environment-ADMIN and CATIA will be opened in Administration Mode.

   

Steps followed to modify System settings:

1. Go to Tools ➜ Options
2. Settings with a lock sign will appear
3. Modify the required settings
4. Click on the lock sign to lock the settings

   

Reset and Dump settings:

1. This is used to reset CATSettings to default value. User can reset the values which are changed to default. It can be changed for tab, workbench, selected solution and for all tab pages.

   

2. To view values of given settings, comparing settings between different releases and viewing each attribute of settings in detail, dump settings are created. This setting is used to create CATVBS files of settings.

   

When the setup application is launched, Some times CATIA V5-6R2019 GA installation crashes out immediately. This is due to the bug reported in the original installation launcher. In this blog, we learn how to resolve this error while installing CATIA V5 R29 GA.

1. What is the CATIA V5 R29 GA installation error?

While installing CATIA V5 R29 PLM Express or Legacy configurations, CATIA displays the following error.


This error occurs due to the redistributable packages installed in Windows 10.

2. What are the steps to resolve this error?
• Download any CATIA V5 R29 Service Pack (1 to 5) from DS support portal.
• Extract the ZIP file.
• Copy exe file from location:

V5-6R2019.SP1.SPK.win_b64.1-1\SPK.win_b64\1\FIXGA

• Replace existing exe file in GA folder with the downloaded setup.exe from Service Pack.
  

 

• After replacing exe file, CATIA V5 R29 installation starts without any error.



By downloading and replacing setup.exe file in CATIA V5 GA folder, CATIA V5 R29 can be installed without any error.

CATIA link is a dependency relation used to share geometric, parametric or positioning information between components in CATIA V5. Links in CATIA are unidirectional and always point from the child to the parent.

Types of Links

There are five types of links each of which are explained below with a common example.

1. The CCP link The first CAT Part contains the geometrical definition of the raw material used to create the table leg. The second CAT Part contains the geometrical definition of the finished table leg. Consistency must be ensured between the models: a modification of the raw material must be reflected in the finished leg. For that purpose, the raw material part geometry is copied and pasted in the finished part (with the link maintained), where the machining operations are performed.Since the raw material and the finished leg will never be assembled together, this operation is performed outside the context of an assembly.

   

   The CCP link is created in a part when the geometry is pasted using the ‘Paste special as result with link’ functionality provided the copy/paste operation is performed from part to part and outside the context of a product.

2. The KWE link

The leg socket is the common interface between the table leg and the tabletop. The dimensions of the socket are stored in parameters in the tabletop part. For the table leg to match the tabletop, those dimensions must match. For that purpose, the dimension can be copied (with the link maintained) from the tabletop to the table leg.



This link is in all points identical to the CCP link, except that parameters are copied instead of geometry.

The KWE link is created in a part where parameters are pasted using the ‘Paste special as result with link’ functionality.

3. The Instance link

To create a table assembly, the tabletop and table leg components must be inserted in the table assembly CAT Product.


In this process, the table assembly is the parent and the tabletop and table legs are the children. In the table assembly, an Instance link is created for each component. This link carries the name and path of the files.



The Instance link is created in a CAT Product where CAT Parts or CAT Products are inserted.

4. The Constraints

Assembly constraints are used to position the parts of the assembly. Each leg will require an axis-to-axis coincidence and surface-to-surface contact constraints to position it.



The assembly constraints allow to position parts and products in the context of an assembly. This type of link cannot be visualized in the Edit/ Links menu. The links are stored in the CATProduct and apply to the instance of the components. In other words, an assembly constraint applies to a specific representation of a part in a specific assembly. For example, if the Leg 1 instance is constrained, all the other table leg instances are still free.

If the table leg style A was replaced by a table leg style B in the table assembly, all the constraints would be broken. The use of publications prevents this behavior. If the same publication name (Leg Axis) is applied to both table legs’ axis, the assembly constraint will be reconnected automatically when the table leg is replaced with the second one.

The constraint is created between two part/ product instances. The use of publications will allow reconnecting the constraints automatically when parts are replaced.

5. The View Link

The table leg CAT Part contains the 3D geometrical definition and a CAT Drawing contains the associated 2D representation. The views are generated from the CAT Part using Generative Drafting functionalities. Whenever the part is modified, the drawing views indicate an update is required to reflect the changes.

This process does not create any external link in the CAT Part (the parent). In the CAT Drawing (the child), a View Link points to the CAT Part (the parent). The View Link is created for each generative view of a drawing. The information carried by the link is the name and path of the source model used for the projection.



The View Link is created between the CAT Drawing for each generated view. The link points to the object used to create the view (CAT Part or CAT Product)

To access Links in CATIA V5, Select Edit ➜ Links.



Here, the pointed documents of Assembly, Part and Drawings can be seen.

Sometimes when an assembly is opened, an error pops up displaying “File could not be found”. This error occurs when the Part or Drawing File is missing from the location it was kept earlier. This error can be resolved by selecting Desk from error message or Select File ➜ Desk.

For example, Crankshaft is the missing part in the below error message.




The part file which is highlighted in red color is missing. Right click on the missing part and select Find. Now browse to the path where that file is kept and select the file. The red highlighted part will turn into white color which means that the part is found and loaded in the assembly.