Designing the External Mirror

In this scenario, the user instantiates the vehicle, the driver, the mirror and the target, and checks the resulting field of view. This scenario is divided into the following steps:

Start the RearViewMirror Workbench

  1. Open CATIA and close the default empty product.

  1. From the Start menu, select RearViewMirror.

If this workbench is not available, contact your expert user for him to copy the files provided in the Before you start topic into the appropriate directories and to generate the workbench enabling you to replay this scenario.

You are now in the user workbench. All the items defined in the .CATfct file now display in the toolbar located in the right part of the screen. Note that the icons can be replaced with empty check boxes if you did not associate icons with the types.

  1. Click the root product in the specification tree, click the icon to initialize the assembly context in the selected product (if need be) and click the root product again.

Defining the Type and Loading the Vehicle

  1. Click the product and click the IndirectVision icon. The IndirectVision type is associated with the root product.

  2. Define the type and load the vehicle.

  • Right-click the IndirectVision (Product1) object in the tree and select IndirectVision (Product1) object>Define vehicle data. The vehicle is loaded. Its type is "Vehicle".
 

Instantiate the Driver

  1. Instantiate the driver. 

  • Right-click the IndirectVision (Product1) object in the tree and select IndirectVision (Product1) object>Define driver. The Catalog browser is displayed.
  •  In the catalog browser, select Driver-2D-95-Male. The behavior instantiates the selected driver.
 

Instantiate the Mirror

  1. Instantiate the mirror.

  • Right-click the IndirectVision (Product1) object in the tree and select IndirectVision (Product1) object>Define external mirror.
    A new empty part typed ExternalMirror is inserted into the product. (See picture opposite.)

  • Right-click ExternalMirror (Mirror_Part.1)and select Mirror_Part.1 object> Generate geometry. The Mirror_Part has been created along with its publications.

Edit the Mirror Attributes

  1. Edit the mirror attributes.

    • Double-click ExternalMirror (Mirror_Part.1) in the specification tree. 

    • Double-click the VerticalAngle attribute. The Attribute dialog box is displayed.

    • Set the value of the VerticalAngle to 18deg. Click OK to validate.

    • Double-click the HorizontalAngle attribute. The Attribute dialog box is displayed.

    • Set the value of the HorizontalAngle to -4.5deg. Click OK to validate.

    • Double-click the Width attribute. The Attribute dialog box is displayed.

    • Set the width value 40mm. Click OK twice to validate.

    • Update the Mirror_Part.

    • Expand the Mirror variables node and double-click the modified attributes to check their values.

Instantiate the Target

  1. Instantiate the target.

    • Right-click the IndirectVision (Product1) object in the tree and select IndirectVision (Product1) object>Define target.

    • In the Catalog browser, double-click Target and TargetTemplate. The target is instantiated.

Instantiate the indirect Field of View

  1. Instantiate the indirect field of view for a classic mirror.

    • Right-click Driver and select Driver object>Generate indirect field of view for classic mirror. The field of view is generated. (See picture opposite.)

Generate a Report

  1. Right-click IndirectVision and select IndirectVision object>Generate Report: A HTML browser opens displaying the report. 

Sketch a New Mirror

  1. Sketch a new mirror.

    • Expand the Mirror_Part node.

    • Select Mirror_Support located in the Results node below Mirror_Geometry, and open the sketcher.

    • Reframe on the external mirror and sketch a new mirror made of a rectangle. The sketch we have created represents our new mirror. We now want to generate the corresponding field of view. But to do that, we need to publish some geometrical elements.

    • Exit the Sketcher.

Publish Elements of the New Sketch

  1. Double-click Mirror_Part in the specification tree and select Tools>Publication from the menu.

  2. Select Mirror_Support and Sketch.1 and publish them as Mirror_Plane and Sketch_Mirror.

The parameters are published now.

Generate the Indirect Field of View

  1. Generate the indirect field of view.

    • Right-click Driver and select Driver object>Generate indirect field of view for planar mirror. The field of view is generated.