Creating a Drawing from Meshes

This task shows you how to create a drawing from meshes, e.g. a meshes representing geological layers:

The drawing can be created in two View generation mode:

Approximate,
Exact view:
- Reliability and performance are better than in approximate mode,
- You can draw sections along polylines, these polylines being either interactively drawn or stored in a sketch.
Construction elements can be included.

Open the MeshDrafting01.CATPart from the samples directory.

You must have access to the Drafting workbench.
Go to Tool > Options > Drafting > Administration and select the Prevent generative view style usage check-box if you do not want to use generative view styles when creating or updating views. Otherwise, clear this check box.
In the Administration Tasks, you will find information about the GVS parameters for Clouds and ZLevel Maps (if required).
The generative view styles mechanism is described in the Generative Drafting User's Guide.
The meshes must all be under Geometrical Sets or Ordered Geometrical Sets. However, it is not mandatory to have them all under one single Geometrical Set or one single Ordered Geometrical Set.
Meshes under a Hybrid Body or a Body in a Set are not taken into account.
All meshes must be displayed in Smooth mode, not in Flat mode.
Hide all the elements and sets that you do not want to transfer into the drawing.

Approximate

Go to Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting and select the View tab. Make sure that View generation mode is set to Approximate.

In the Drafting workbench:

In the CATPart containing the meshes, select xy plane.

On the sheet, a blue knob appears, as well as a green frame containing a preview of the view to be created.

The knob lets you define the location and orientation of the view to be created, using the blue manipulators: top, bottom, left, right or rotated according to a given snapping, or according to a specified rotation angle. Click the drawing sheet or at the center of the blue knob to generate the view:

Generate a section cut of the meshes:

In Drafting, select Insert > Views > Sections > Aligned Section Cut
and select Sketch.4 in the MeshDrafting01.CATPart window. The sketch is added to the drawing and a preview of the Aligned Section Cut is displayed:
Indicate the location of the Aligned Section Cut by a pick in the drawing:

Generate a section view of the meshes:

Proceed as in step 3., but select Insert > Views > Sections > Aligned Section View:
All these views are on one sheet:
Note that graduations are not generated automatically, even in section cuts.

You can add names and geological symbols of each layer.
As they are not generated automatically, you must create them manually.

Go to Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting and select the View tab. Make sure that View generation mode is set to Exact view.

In the Drafting workbench:

In the CATPart containing the meshes, select xy plane.

On the sheet, a blue knob appears, as well as a green frame.
The knob lets you define the location and orientation of the view to be created, using the blue manipulators: top, bottom, left, right or rotated according to a given snapping, or according to a specified rotation angle. Click the drawing sheet or at the center of the blue knob to generate the view:

Please note that only the bounding boxes of the meshes are generated into the exact view.

Generate a section cut of the meshes:

In Drafting, select Insert > Views > Sections > Aligned Section Cut
Draw lines to define the section cut. The section is also previewed in the window containing the meshes:
In the Drafting window, a green frame lets you position the section cut:

Pick at the required position in the drawing:

Instead of drawing the cutting lines interactively, you can select lines stored as a sketch.
You can generate section cuts, not section views.
No hatching will be generated.

Constructions represented by elements other than meshes can be taken into account:

or