Output Formats
Importing UG, VDA-FS and Parasolid 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, you can choose whether to create CGR, CGR with canonical information or CATPart data from the UG, VDA-FS and Parasolid data.
Each of these formats allows access to part user attributes (via the Edit->Properties menu command):
- Move the data
- 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
- The colors of UG parts are supported in CATPart and direct 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.
- VDA-FS files which contain POLYGON entity type are not supported.
- There is a risk of failure during the conversion for UG files bigger than 30Mb.
- Coordinate systems are not supported.
- With the exception of PartNumber, the attributes of Parts are not imported into V5.
- The UG direct server does not support properly files containing layers and reference sets. The conversion will fail or produce a bad result.
- If all the layers of the UG Part are deactivated, the conversion to CATPart will fail.
- UG files with no geometry cannot be imported, the conversion will fail.
- Parasolid files containing more than 200 components cannot be imported into an assembly structure. You have to split those files in smaller files to import them successfully.
- In CATPart mode, multi-shells entities, i.e. entities with one external shell and one internal shell, are not transferred as such (as a part body) but as a geometrical set containing several faces.
- Application specific format (e.g. piping data) is not in the scope of MultiCAD (which is dedicated to Product structure and geometry).
Environment
The ideal working environment makes use of the following:
-
Cache mode ON (set through Tools->Options->Infrastructure->Product Structure>Cache Management)
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 UD Plug-in supports CATPart mode, allowing for UG parts to be imported as CATPart data files. In this mode, UG 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.
When to use the CATPart mode
CATPart mode is used when you need to perform exact positioning and exact measuring.
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.