Catia Export

[proengineer]

I have to export a Pro/E model to a format that can be opened in Catia. Can someone suggest the settings in Pro/E to be done and the format one should use / available in Pro/E for best data translation.
Is there any special Plugin or Software that is available and can be used either while exporting data from Pro/E or while importing data in Catia?
Promt response is appreciated.
Thanks
Amish

 

[Hora]

If you don't have the ATB bus licence, go with STEP 403 (ProE default). Choose solid and select your coordinate system.

-Hora

 

[proengineer]

Which ATB Bus licence are you mentioning...Pro/INTF-for-CAT....I thought that license helps only while importing data from Catia and not vice-versa.

Thanks a lot for the support.

Amish

 

[Hora]

Pro/INTF for CAT is NOT the ATB BUS. With ATB bus you can import/export .model files from Catia. Can you do it?

ATB bus is $$$$$$

My advice is to stay with STEP. IGES solid from Pro/E is too huge for Catia.

-Hora

 

[Heckler]

I second Hora's advice.....STEP has been succesful for my data transfer.

 

[proengineer]

Well, using the license "Pro/INTF-for-CAT-II-w_ATB" gives me facility of importing and exporting "*.model" files. Thus now I have a format ".model" that I can export my Pro/E files to. Since "model" is a extension that Catia V4 recoganizes, the exported model can be opened in Catia.

My second concern was the quality of data. I have no experience of using Catia. But I expect that since ".model" is Catia's native format, the quality of data translated should be the best in comparison to STEP or IGES. Is this true?

My third concern was that when I open the ".model" file of a Pro/E assembly exported in Catia, I should have the complete structure of sub-assemblies and parts in Catia also. This problem is also solved since while exporting an assembly to ".model", Pro/E asks whether we want a FLAT or DITTOS File Structure. Choosing a Dittos file structure does this job.

Comments are welcome

Amish

 

[Hora]

Amish,

You have the ATB bus then. Try to export your assy in both formats (.model and STEP) and choose the one of them.

In the past I had some problems with the .model exported from Pro/E 2001.

Indeed, FLAT will convert your assy in a single part and DITTO will keep the assy structure.
Also, don't forget that a CATIA V4 assembly is a .session and not .model. But it's a madness to create a .session.

I export currently Pro/E files into CATIA V5 and I use STEP. This works fine for me.

Good luck,
-Hora.

 

[proengineer]

I think you are right. I faced a lot of problem when I export it to .model. This file when imorted to Catia gives a lot of unwanted surfaces.

I also tried STEP route. Though I got open surfaces here also, but these are managable. Are there any settings in Pro/E that one should set for exporting to STEP format.

 

[Hora]

Amish,

The only settings in PROE for STEP is the format (203 or 214). 203 is default and I suggest you to keep it.

Rounds may give you problems. Try to identify the parts with open surfaces and then in PROE remove rounds. Sometimes, is easy to recreate them in CATIA than to loose an incredible amount of time trying to close surfaces.

Play also with part accuracy. This may cause failure in rounds features but can solve some problems.

Another suggestion is this one: Once you have your assy in CATIA, export it again in STEP from CATIA. Then import it again. Incredible, but this can solve a lot of problems, usualy open surfaces. I tell you this because I had such a problem, creating a .model from PROE. I export in in STEP, import in in CATIA V5, export in .model. I obtained a part a with opened surfaces. So before to export in in .model, I made a new STEP from CATIA V5, imported back and then export it in .model. Problem solved.

Good luck.
-Hora

 

[natester]

I frequently work with files going back and forth between Pro/ENGINEER and CATIA V5 using STPE AP203. Below are the settings that I use in the CONFIG.pro file. 99% of the time translations between these two softwares has been very good and even when it models do not translate as intended it has never taken much to repair the model. I work with solid models that have very complex geometry so I must say that I have been very pleased with the results.

step_export_format ap203_is
intf3d_out_default_option solid
intf3d_out_extend_surface no
intf_in_blanked_entities NO
intf3d_in_include_items SRFS_CRVS_PNTS
iges_out_dwg_line_font yes
fix_catia_iges_sym_note yes

I hope that this helps.
Nate

 

[TopGuns]

FYI:

A .model is considered a V4 file. Therefore, make sure you use MigrateV4ToV5 Utility when trying to open with V5. Do not use File > Open. Oh yeah, make sure you hv min P2 configuration. Batch util will not run on P1.

Peter