ASSEMBLING COMPONENTS 2

It only seeems like the first part is attached to the assembly but it is not fixed to the origin. To make sure that the fist part is locked in the origin of the assembly use the "Fix Component" constraint on the fist part before doing anything else.

One way to make planes in the assembly to have as assembly references assemble an empty part as the fisrt part and use the "Fix Component" constraint. Then when you assemble the second part you can use "offset" och "coincinence" from the planes of the first part.

THANKS AKESSON, THAT MAKES ALOT OF SENSE. BUT YOU WOULD THINK THAT YOU COULD USE THE INITIAL PLANES IN A EMPTY ASSEMBLY MODEL TO ASSEMBLE THE PLANES OF THE FIRST PART IN A OFFSET MANOR. I WONDER IF THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT?

BOTTOMS UP!

VINNY (-:

Hi Vinny,

Yes, it's probably a simple reason for and it's called V4. V5 lacks a lot of merry functionality due to the heritage from V4 and compability to Enovia products i.e. VPM. It's also the reasin why V5 assembly fetures works as they do, that is, not as you would expect.

Consider an assembly file in V5 as a container for parts, nothing elsse and it suddenly makes more sense why an assembly can't have co-ordinate systems, planes and other nice features for structuring the assembly.

A tip for you. Create an empty assembly and add a part with the basic features you need, e.g. co-ordinate system. Fix the part and save everything in a special directory. Next time you need to start an assembly, do a New From and choose this assembly. It's now your start assy.

Good luck
O Gabrielson (It's 7.30 am and Catia won't start, I'll have another cup of Java)

hi,

CATProduct do have origin, but we cannot see it. That's why having a CATPart with REF planes and axis is good, as ogabriel said, I will just had to fix this CATPart, to be sure it is not moving from its place.

If you try this you will see the origine of CATProduct :

1- Have a new CATProduct 1,
2- Add a new CATPart A inside CATProduct 1,
3- Fix that CATPart A,

4- Have in a separate windows a new CATProduct 2,
5- Add a new CATPart B inside CATProduct 2,
6- Fix that CATPart B,

7- Drag CATProduct 2 into CATProduct 1,
8- Keep CATProduct 2 windows open,

You should have now 2 windows :

CATProduct 1
|
|-CATPart A
|
|-CATProduct 2
|
|-CATPart B


and

CATProduct 2
|
|-CATPart B

Now you can have fun

Active level is CATProduct 1

move CATProduct 2 (using the compass), you can see that CATPart B is moving.

Add in CATProduct 1 a new CATPart C, and move it (using the compass) so its origine is not the same as CATPart A.

case 1
Now if you copy / past CATPart C into CATProduct 2 in the CATProduct 1 window, CATPArt C is moving in the tree but not in space ! (it used to be different)

case 2
BUT is you copy past CATPArt C in CATProduct 2 in CATProduct 2 window, then CATPart C will change place to be at the same position from CATPart B as it used to be from CATPart A in CATProduct 1 window.

But we didn t set any relation or constraints on CATPart C, so its position is given by the CATProduct origin.

Case 1 used (in prev rel) to make CATPart C change in space, I don't know when that changed.

Do you know if there is a way to choose case 1 or case 2 when you copy past element from CATProduct with diferent origine ? Sometime we just want to move element in the tree but not in space, but we aslo want sometines to make that element move in space accordinly to it's CATProduct origine.

I tested that on R9 and R10, used to be diferent in R4 or R5. I wonder if this is due to CATProduct origin OR context oorigin... Eric N.

catiav5@softhome.net