Methodologies and Advice

This section provides information that users should be familiar with prior to configuring and using MULTICAx Pro/Engineer PD Plug-in. It also offers advice regarding when these technologies should be used.
 

Output Formats

Importing ProE 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, the user can choose whether to create CGR, CGR with canonical information or CATPart data.
Each of these formats allow for access to part user attributes (via the Edit -> Properties menu command): 

  • 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
  • Clash detection (on CGR)
  • Approximate measurements (or exact measurement with CATPart)
  • Inertia and volume calculations

General warning about CAD converters

V5 MultiCAD converters provide the best effort to match external CAD data and produced V5 data.
However, due to various implementation choices and specific data models used by each CAD actor on the market, MultiCad direct solutions cannot guarantee that produced data perfectly matches original data at anytime in every possible situation.
STEP is an international standard dedicated to interoperability. Each CAD system export from STEP or Import from STEP with a common certified specification which warranty the highest rates of reliability, of conformance and accuracy.
Multi-Cad direct CAD to V5 solutions are the shortest and easiest way to proceed but may include some restrictions that customer must be aware of.
For support of sensitive customer process, it should be considered to use STEP(ST1) or Multi-Cad STEP (DTL) as an alternative solution when Multi-Cad direct CAD to V5 does not apply.

Limitations

  • Please note that 64-bits platforms are required for large CAD data conversions (several hundreds of Megabytes on disk). 2 GBytes addressable memory limit on 32-bits cannot be enforced anyway, and defines a physical limit to all processes, including CAD conversions.
  • If the ProE data contains any global references then these will be transferred during the translation. If the ProE files associated with these links are not present then they will be displayed as missing links (As viewed through File -> Desk option).

Error reporting

Whenever you import a ProE part or assembly file, V5 creates a report in the CATReport directory.  The report is found in a file titled part_name.txt or assembly_name.txt.
 

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 PD Plug-in supports CATPart mode, allowing for ProE parts to be imported as CATPart data files. In this mode, ProE 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.

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.