Methodologies and Advice

 

This section provides information that you should be familiar with prior to configuring and using MULTICAx UD Plug-in. It also offers advice regarding the conditions under which these technologies should be used.

 

Output Formats

Importing UG, VDA-FS and Parasolid data into V5 results in a conversion of the imported data to one of three formats, selectable by the user. Depending on how the imported data will be used, you can choose whether to create CGR, CGR with canonical information or CATPart data from the UG, VDA-FS and Parasolid data.

Each of these formats allows access to part user attributes (via the Edit->Properties menu command): 

  • Move the data
  • Clash detection
  • Inertia and Volume calculations

Each format has its own advantages and limitations:

  • CGR (Visu mode). CATIA Graphical Representation is the visualization format of CATIA V5. With this very light format, you can do approximate measurement and have access to all the basic DMU functionalities.
  • CGR with canonical information which enable exact measurement and exact snapping (Visu Snap mode)
  • CATPart (CATPart mode). It is a standard V5 CATPart which is locked, therefore you can use it as any other CATPart with the exception that you cannot modify it. You can just reference it.
   
   
 

Supported Features

 

  • Access to part user attributes (via Edit -> Properties)
  • Move
  • Exact positioning (Snap command) when using CATPart mode
  • The colors of UG parts are supported in CATPart and direct mode,
  • Clash detection (on CGR)
  • Approximate measurements (or exact measurement with CATPart)
  • Inertia and volume calculations
   
 

Limitation

 

  • VDA-FS files which contain POLYGON entity type are not supported.
  • There is a risk of failure during the conversion for UG files bigger than 30Mb.

 
 

  • Coordinate systems are not supported.
  • With the exception of PartNumber, the attributes of Parts are not imported into V5.
  • The UG direct server does not support properly files containing layers and reference sets. The conversion will fail or produce a bad result.
  • If all the layers of the UG Part are deactivated, the conversion to CATPart will fail.
  • UG files with no geometry cannot be imported, the conversion will fail.
  • Parasolid files containing more than 200 components cannot be imported into an assembly structure. You have to split those files in smaller files to import them successfully.
  • In CATPart mode, multi-shells entities, i.e. entities with one external shell and one internal shell, are not transferred as such (as a part body) but as a geometrical set containing several faces

 
 

Environment

The ideal working environment makes use of the following:
 

  • CGR for users that need better performance and do not require exact positioning (or exact measuring)

  • CATPart for users that need the additional features provided by the CATPart format (such as exact measurement, exact positioning, kinematics, etc.).

 
 

Using CATPart Mode vs Visu Mode

The MULTICAx UD Plug-in supports CATPart mode, allowing for UG parts to be imported as CATPart data files. In this mode, UG part data contained by the solid body is transferred into a CATPart.

Because CATPart files are large and take more time to convert, CATPart mode management is an optional feature.

CATPart features and limitations

The features and limitations of Multi-CAD CATParts are identical to those of all other locked V5 CATParts, which can be used as a reference but cannot be modified.

When to use the CATPart mode

CATPart mode is used when you need to perform exact positioning and exact measuring.

You should be aware that the conversion to the CATPart format requires more time than only generating the CGR (faceted) format. In addition, CATPart files are larger than their corresponding CGR files. Therefore, it is recommended that CATPart mode is only enabled if exact positioning, exact measurement or putting constraints is required.