Reaction Features

Click the Reactions icon to create a script specifying how to change some feature attributes when an event occurs.

The reaction is a feature that reacts to events on its sources by triggering an action. It is designed to cope with the rules and the behaviors limitations and to create more associative and reactive design.

A reaction is a feature that reacts to events

The source can be:

A selected feature (or a list of features)

A parameter (result of a test)

Events can be:

General events on objects (creation, deletion, update, drag and drop, attribute changes) and parameter value changes.

Insert/Replace component

Object Drag and Drop

A reaction is similar to a rule in the fact that:

It is stored in the model.

It reacts to changes and can trigger modifications.

It also references other objects and parameters in the document and supports the replace mechanism.

But

Reaction features provide a better control over when the action has to be fired.

Reactions enable you to perform more complex actions. Because you have better control when the action is triggered, and you're not constrained by the update mechanism limitations, you can use all the power of any Visual Basic API (in CATIA but also in other automation applications...), and a Visual Basic macro can be called with arguments from an action.

Reactions can be written to customize the update mechanism (to optimize user features, for example).

Reactions can react to user actions (instantiation of a user-defined feature), insertion of a component in an assembly, modification of a parameter...

Reactions can be stored in the model and can be integrated in the definition of a power copy or user feature.

The reaction feature is not integrated to the update contrary to the rule. If a reaction is launched when updating the document, it may impact the document.
When a Reaction (or a Rule) is triggered, all the objects (input objects such as geometrical features) used in the body of the Reaction (or a Rule) are updated prior to the firing of this Reaction (or a Rule). The object update is performed regardless of the method/attribute used on the objects as long as the syntax is valid within the body of the Reaction (or a Rule).