NX talking to Catia

[cobaltred]

Hi,is there any good stable way to exchange NX.prt files into Catia and even the other way around or is that just me wishing for such an easy solution?

Thanks, Buddy.

 

[JohnRBaker]

You can always exchange models using Parasolid. However, while I can't speak for what Catia has to offer, NX allows you to directly open, via integrated translators, various Catia file formats, such as .model, .catpart and .catproduct.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[cobaltred]

OK,is it just bad practice to have to translate to different platforms in general, I understand the ideal situation would be to design everything and do all downstream
applications under one program Catia or NX but what if I designed a class A car surface in NX and wanted to collaborate with a company using Catia would the
integrity of the surfaces be intact or do things get lost in translation?

Thnaks, Buddy

 

[JurgenKreisel]

We transfer parts and assemblies using STEP between Catia V5 R19/R20 and UGNX 7.5 everyday with very good results.

NX7.5 Win7 64bit.

 

[edgray]

John R Baker I am puzzled by your comment that one can always exchange models with CATIA using Parasolids. I have been working in a mixed NX/CATIA environment for over a decade and have never heard of any method of importing Parasolids into CATIA. The closest that we come is sending Parasolids to Ford (which is a CATIA house) via their Teamcenter installation.

The open CATPart and CATProduct function in NX works very well. I have not experimented with the export to CATIA V5 yet.

 

[JohnRBaker]

As I said, I can't account for what Dassault has provided their Catia users, but they do have access to the Parasolid tools and I just assumed that they had created at least a minimal import/export capability.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[DaSalo]

Parasolid translation is an optional purchase with CATIA V5. There is no parasolid translation available out of the box. As was mentioned earlier, CATIA works very with .STEP files and we regularly import .STEP files that have been exported from NX with no trouble.

... would the integrity of the surfaces be intact or do things get lost in translation?

There is always a chance that errors can occur in translation. I have seen it happen a few times but generally things go smoothly. If you are dealing with sensitive data your company should have a validation process in place to catch errors. You could do something like:

- Create an isoparametric curve at a known percentage along one of the surface's edges. Create 10 equally spaced points along this curve. Record the X,Y,Z coordinates of those points relative to the model origin.

- Translate the model and open in CATIA

- Create an isoparametric curve at the same position on the surface, create the same 10 points along it, and verify that the X,Y,Z coordinates match at every point.

The more critical the surface the more points I would check.

I believe Boeing has a standard in place for verifying translated models. Perhaps you could reference that if it is public.

CATIA V5 R20
PC-DMIS 2011 MR1

 

[cobaltred]

Yeah, OK I will take all of the advise and suggestions here and try to find a workflow that is stable,It is just silly and frustating in this day and age that design software has
become as divided as politics and religion, no talking to the other side.So why so difficult,if I create a simple single span surface in NX, say degree 3 in both the U and V
direction and if I check the individual XYZ CV point locations in X-Form I would expect those points in XYZ to be exactly the same in Catia and for that matter if I create the same
exact surface in say Rhino again those CV points and the nurbs math should all be the same? Same goes for Alias or pro-E.
They are all NURBS modeling programs right? My comments are directed mostly towards all the software companies that have made this such a difficult task.
As a modelmaker and product designer I have to deal with this situation a lot and expect more from the higher end softwares like Catia NX Alias and Pro-E to be able to talk
to each other in a stable reliable way instead of each one defending there side.As designers we do not want to have to concintrate our energy on such matters that really
have nothing to do with our core work.Hope that is not to harsh, just seems to me there is no excuse for it.

Thanks to all for the suggestions and advise.Buddy