WildFire with ATB can not open CATIA V5 assemblies (CATIA Product)

[josephv]

Hello all,

It is our understanding that WildFire with ATB can not open CATIA V5 assemblies (CATIA Product files).

If this is the case what our other customers doing to overcome this limitation. From our perspective this is a pretty big limitation, since one would have to export individual parts in position from CATIA and create a completely new Pro/E assembly. There are other issues that come up, what if the same part is in two assemblies? We would need two different parts in this case, since the position is probably different.

Please forward your comments and suggestions. And have you run into this problem?

Thanks,

Joseph

 

[Hora]

Ask your customer to export the assembly as CATPart. I will result a dumb part with many bodies (as many components are assembled). Then you can import the CATPart file in ProE.

-Hora

 

[josephv]

Thanks again Hora...

Great idea, we tried it but ran into the following issue.

We are using CATIA 5 R12, which does not have a save assembly as CATPart command. So we open the assembly in R14, save as CATPart. Move the bodies into PartBody and use the utility to convert it back to R12. Unfortunately the utility does not understand multibodies, so all we get is one body.

So we are back in square one, and wondering what other customers are doing since ATB does not support CATIA assemblies.

Thank you,

Joseph

 

[josephv]

One more note... we will post a separate question in the CATIA forum about the R12 limiations.

As for Pro/E, our original question still stands, what are other customers are doing since ATB does not support CATIA assemblies.

Cheers,

Joseph

 

[Hora]

Joseph,

In CATIA V5 <R14, to save an assembly as part, you must add the following environment variable in CATEnv file:

IRD_PRODUCTTOPART 1

-Hora

 

[josephv]

Hello Hora,

Thank you for your help and your suggestion.

This is what we are trying to do:

In a perfect world we would like to import CATIA V5 R16 assemblies into Pro/E WildFire II.

WildFire II cannot open CATIA assemblies and can only open R12 Catia parts.

So the only solution we have right now is to save each part in the CATIA V5 R16 assembly in position. For each part, move the bodies to the primary body. Downgrade the parts with the utility to R12.
Open each CATIA part in Pro/E, and technically rebuild the assembly.

As you can see this is quite a bit of work, but so far the only feasible solution.

So as you can see although your suggestion is great, since we can not downgrade assemblies in CATIA, we still have a problem.

Cheers,

Joseph

 

[Hora]

Joseph,

Thank your for this explanation. I think you can save some time doing this:

In CTIA V5R16 save the assembly as CATPart (see the Tolls menu -> Covert Product to part). Once CATIA creates the PART in screen and save the part.

Now try to import the file in Wildfire 2. If Wildfire is not able to open the CATPart saved with CATIA V5R16, then you have 2 options:

OPTION A: Save the CATPart as .model (CATIA V4) and Wildfire will take the part without problems.

OPTION B: Go to the TOOLS->Utility in CATIA menus and choose the Downward Compatibility for R12. Now you'll be able to open the part in ProE.

There is another way. Did you try the STEP? Is Wildfire able to import the STEP file thru the ATB bus?

Good luck.

-Hora

 

[josephv]

Looks like we agreed on a fix.

After all this, we shall use IGES to go from CATIA to Pro/E.

A big thanks to everyone for your ideas.

This is an excellent forum.


Joseph

 

[Hora]

Joseph, forget the IGES! IGES files exported by CATIA are usless in ProE. I had bad experience with the IGES files generated by CATIA. So many missing surfaces you can't believe to your eyes. Go with STEP or .model file.

-Hora