Using Tools for Building Assemblies

 

Building assemblies can be very time-consuming, since much of your time is spent in searching for existing components and placing them in Assemblies. SmarTeam - CATIA Integration provides the following tools to assist you in building your assemblies:
  • Find: Use SmarTeam Find to locate parts and products.
  • Copy File: As you build your assembly, you can copy parts/products to your desktop to view how they fit together with the current assembly.
 
  • Light Weight Mode: From V5R17 onwards, when loading a CATProduct document into your CATIA session, it is possible to restrict the number of associated CATPart documents to be extracted from the vault. You can extract only the CATPart documents you need, which optimizes performance and ensures that there are no broken links in the CATIA session: pointed documents are known even if they are not in the working directory. This new behavior is made possible thanks to the SmarTeam Light Weight Mode option that allows you to extract CATPart documents in CGR (CATIA Graphical Representation) format from the vault. This extraction type is to be used in visualization mode. Documents you need to load in the CATIA session, i.e. when switching to design mode, will be automatically extracted from the vault.
    To know more about the Light Weight Mode, see Defining the Light Weight Mode for CATPart Documents and Administration Tasks - SmarTeam Upgrade/Migration.
  • Assembly Management options:
    • When you wish to insert an existing part or product as a component of the current product, use Insert Component.
      SmarTeam inserts the component into the current product. When you save the assembly, the components are saved as children of the assembly. In this way, SmarTeam accurately reflects the structure of your assembly.
    • When you wish to replace an existing part or product or a component of the current product, use Replace Component.
      SmarTeam replaces the selected component with a SmarTeam part or product. When you save the new assembly, the previously selected components are saved as children of the assembly. In this way, SmarTeam accurately reflects the structure of your assembly.
    • Click Replace with Selected Revision to replace the current revision of a document with another, of your choosing.
      Depending on the context, Replace with Selected Revision can be available for modified documents.
      Be aware that the revision is replaced at all tree locations.
      Replace with Selected Revision is available from contextual menus.
  • Save: If you created new parts as components of the assembly, SmarTeam will save each of these parts/products into the SmarTeam database when you save the assembly. A Profile Card for each document is displayed. After these components are saved, the Profile Card for the product is displayed. In this manner, you can save the product and its components.
  • Batch Mode Save: SmarTeam provides you with a batch method for saving assemblies. The Batch Mode Save does not display a Profile Card during a SmarTeam Save operation. Instead, each component is saved in the SmarTeam database with a unique ID number. At a later time, you can open a Profile Card for a component and enter information in the attribute fields.
  • In addition, SmarTeam enables you to locate all the parents of any document using Where Used.