Editing Components

This task lists the ways of editing components in an existing assembly:
  • The Cut command removes the selected component instance and puts it in the clipboard.
  • The Copy command puts a copy of the selected component instance into the clipboard.
  • The Paste command creates a new component instance from the clipboard.
  • The Delete command removes the selected component instance. Note that it is impossible to delete a deactivated component, it must be reactivated prior to deletion. For more information about the deletion of the instance of a contextual CATPart, please see below.
  • The drag and drop capability allows you to copy or move one component to another.

For each edition operation you must select the components in the specification tree.

Remember that the components you wish to move or paste may have one or more constraints. Once the component is moved or pasted, the constraints may be broken. See also Copying and Pasting Objects CATIA - Infrastructure User's Guide.

What happens when you delete the Instance of a Contextual Part
This task shows you how a contextual part can be modified by a Delete operation and it can be saved in the Save Management window.
Open the document: ChangeCtx.CATProduct.

You can display document links by selecting the Edit > Links... command. Click the Pointed documents tab to display only the documents pointed to by the current object. Select Poteaux.CATProduct and click Open.

And you can visualize both ChangeCtx.CATProduct and Poteaux.CATProduct:

This symbol next to Pic1 (Pic1.1) in the Specification Tree represents a part and the green gear signifies the "original" instance of a part that is contextual (driven by another part, built with another part's data) in a CATProduct.

Pic1 (Pic1.1) is a contextual part and it has been built with Upper (Upper.1) and Lower (Lower.1). Upper (Upper.1) and Lower (Lower.1) are selection instances (External References) and Pic1 (Pic1.1) depends on them, which explains why the External References file appears under Pic1 (Pic1.1) in the Specification Tree. If you modify Upper (Upper.1) and/or Lower (Lower.1), there will be some impacts on the contextual part.

  1. In Masters.CATProduct, select Upper (Upper.1) and delete it. The following dialog box is displayed:

  2. Click the More >> button in order to see the names of the CATIA elements affected by deletion:

    • Pic1\PartBody\Pad.1\ : the pad will disappear because it has lost its External References.

    • Pic1\External References\Surfaces.2 : Surfaces.2 is impacted because Upper.1 is an External Reference, helping to build Pic1.CATPart.

  1. Click OK. Pic1 has disappeared and it is no longer updated:

  2. If you want to save these CATProducts and CATParts, select the File > Save Management... command:
If you want to keep the External References undamaged within Pic1.CATPart, select Component > Isolate Part in the contextual menu of the part (before the Delete operation) in order to isolate it in an existing assembly. Therefore you will be able to modify it independently from the other parts. External References become "Isolated":

  • For more information about this function, please refer to Isolate Part.
  • You cannot undo the Delete operation in case of multi-editor environment (i.e. when an instance and its reference are opened at least in two CATIA editors).