Display stock and final part?

[andybak]

In helping transition my division from one CAD system to another, I'm currently trying to determine if it's possible to use a single-bodied CATPart to create views (captures, scenes, or whatever they may be referred to as) showing the part in multiple states that can be shared between users (akin to stepping back in the history tree and/or suppressing a feature and taking a snapshot - essentially an assembly scene, but on an individual part level). Ideally, I'd like to find a solution to do something like this, then be able to export the part to eDrawings to share with end users in its multiple states, to show what I'd like to receive from the end user (e.g. part with stock) and what the part will look like after we receive it and our machinists run a 3D cut on it, etc. I've done this using multiple part bodies, using copy/paste as result to generate a part body in a rolled back state, and using the other part body with history to show the part in final form. However, I fear that breaking the link between the two part bodies might present issues if a designer updates one part body, then forgets to manually manipulate or recreate the other. One of my co-workers said the feature I'm searching for was either introduced in R16 or R17, and that it is possible to do this, but he doesn't quite remember what it was, and I've searched fairly thoroughly without finding much. Regardless of whether anyone has experience with eDrawings or not (we're not committed to using it as a viewer, but we do have a licenses for eDrawings Pro for CATIA, so that would be one solution - we need to be able to view 3d annotations/GD&T at the least if we go another route), I'd appreciate any suggestions related to what I'm trying to achieve within CATIA. If such a solution exists, I'd also be curious to know whether it works with boolean operations or not.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

-Andy

 

[andybak]

Another unrelated topic I forgot to throw in with my initial question - is it possible to automatically populate a 3D annotation with information contained on the part level (e.g. fields that have been entered, like part numbers, material treatment, etc.)? I'm looking to create a 3D annotation similar to a title block but in an informal format, just to provide basic information - would like to do this without fancy macros if possible.

If this question would be better off as a separate thread, I can move it - just figured I'd throw it in here for now.

Thanks again for any input!

-Andy

 

[ferdo]

Hi Andy

For both your questions I'd suggest to use 3DVIA Composer, easy to learn and use.

Its doing a lot of things and you can save different kind of files (3dpdf, movies...), showing exactly what you want.

The only problem is money for the license...

Regards
Fernando