Catia Wireframe & Surfaces Table of Contents
Catia Wireframe & Surfaces Table of Contents
Catia Wireframe & Surfaces Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Wireframe & Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Pull Down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Insert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Generative Shape Design Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Bottom Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Advanced Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Developed Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
BiW Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Wireframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Coordinate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
On curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
On plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
On surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Circle / Sphere / Ellipse center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Tangent on curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Point Repetition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Projecting points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Intersection points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Extremum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Polar Extremum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Point-Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Point-Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Angle/Normal to curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Tangent to curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Normal to surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Bisecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Intersection lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Projecting lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Polyline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Connect Checker Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Draft Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Surfacic Curvature Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Porcupine Curvature Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Geometric Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Dress-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Parents/Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Historical Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Quick Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Inserting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Sets of planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Regular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Irregular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Semi-Regular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Keep and No Keep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Keep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
No Keep Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Current Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
2D Visualization Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Deleting Useless Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Problem #01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Problem #02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Problem #03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Problem #04 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Problem #05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Problem #06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Problem #07 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Part Design Using Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Split . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Thick Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Sew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Pad/Pocket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483
Boolean Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
Appendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Generative Shape Optimizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Bump Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Wrap Curve Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Wrap Surface Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Shape Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Automatic Filleting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Appendix D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Developed Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Unfold Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Develop Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Appendix E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
BiW Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Junction Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Diabolo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Hole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Hole Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Mating Flange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Bead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
3D Working Supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Appendix F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Surface Machining Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Appendix G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Introduction
CATIA Version 5 Wireframe & Surfaces
Upon completion of this course, the student should have a full understanding of the
following topics:
- Creating surfaces
As covered in previous courses, surfaces can be used within Part Design. This gives the
capability of hybrid modeling. To review, you should remember that you can perform four
operations with surfaces in Part Design. One option is to add thickness to a surface thereby
creating a solid. A second option is to split your part with a surface. A third option is to
sew a surface into your part, which will either add or remove material, or both. The last
option is to close a surface with planar faces to form a solid. These options should be
reviewed and there are review exercises located in Appendix B. It is also important that you
understand how to work with the boolean operations in order to fully utilize all of the
surface options. These are reviewed in Appendix B as well.
It is important to understand some of the terminology that CATIA uses when working with
wireframe and surfaces. You should already be familiar with a PartBody and know that you
can have more than one within your part. Wireframe geometry and surfaces are created
within geometrical sets. You may also have more than one geometrical set in your part.
Geometrical sets are used to organize your non-solid geometry. When you create new
wireframe or surface geometry, you will need to be sure that the correct geometrical set is
current in order to have an organized tree.
Wireframe
Wireframe geometry is critical to the creation of surfaces and is used as reference geometry
throughout CATIA.
Points
Points are useful to define specific locations and to assist in the creation of other wireframe
geometry. You have a variety of options to define points. This exercise will explore those
options.
Coordinate
Open the Points document. You should see a surface and some wireframe geometry.
Change to the Generative Shape Design workbench. If you are already in the workbench
then you will not need to change. If not, to change workbenches you can select pull down
menu Start, Shape, Generative Shape Design.
Point type Specifies what type of point you want to create, either Coordinates,
On curve, On plane, On surface, Circle/Sphere/Ellipse center,
Tangent on curve or Between
X=, Y=, Z= The coordinate values of the point that you want to create from the
reference point
Reference
Point The point that the coordinates are based from. The default is the
origin.
Axis System Defines the axis system that will be used to create the point
Select Clear Selection. By default, the active axis system is used to create a coordinate
point. By clearing the Axis System selection box, the absolute axis system will be used to
define the point.
Key in 2.0, 4.0, 2.0 for the X, Y and Z values respectively and select OK. You should
have noticed a preview of the point as you were keying in the values before you selected
OK. It should appear similar to the diagram shown below.
Select the Point icon again. The Point Definition window appears. This time you
are going to use a point as the reference instead of the origin.
Clear the Axis System selection box so that the absolute axis system will be used and
select the point you just created to define the Reference Point. The point is labeled as
Point and the name of the point appears in the Point area of the window.
Key in 0.0, 2.0, 1.0 for the X, Y and Z values respectively and select OK. The new point
is created based from the original point instead of the origin.
Select the Point icon again. The Point Definition window appears. This time you
are going to create a point using the axis system that has been created instead of using the
absolute axis system.
Key in 1.0, 2.0, 0.0 for the X, Y and Z values respectively and select OK. The point is
created based from the origin of Axis System.1 instead of t he absolute axis system. Your
model should appear similar to the diagram shown below.
You can also create points on elements such as curves, planes and surfaces.
Change the Point type to On curve. The options in the window change.
Curve Specifies the curve on which you are going to create a point on
Distance to reference
Distance on curve Allows you to specify a distance along the curve from
the reference point
Ratio of curve length Allows you to specify a ratio between the reference
point and the extremity
Select the curve on the right. The curve is labeled Curve in the display and the extremity
shows an arrow.
Turn the Distance on curve option on, change the Length to be 5.0 and make sure it is
set to Geodesic. The point appears 5 inches along the curve.
Turn the Euclidean option on instead of the Geodesic option. The point is still on the
curve but it is 5 inches from the reference point instead of being 5 inches along the curve.
Select the Point icon again, make sure the Point type is set to On curve and select the
curve on the right.
Turn on the Geodesic and Ratio of curve length options and change the Ratio to 0.25
and select Preview. A point appears a quarter of the way along the curve. A ratio of 0.5 is
the midpoint of the curve. You should note that only the Distance on curve option can use
the Euclidean option.
Select OK. The point is created and should appear similar to the diagram shown below.
Select the Point icon again and make sure the Point type is set to On curve. Select the
curve on the right.
Select the Middle point button and select OK. The point appears at the midpoint of the
curve.
Select the Point icon again and make sure the Point type is set to On curve. Select the
curve on the right. This time you are going to use a reference point other than an
extremity. All the other options work the same except the distance and ratio, which are
based from the reference point.
Select in the Reference Point box and select the point shown below. Notice the direction
of the arrow.
Select the Reverse Direction button. The arrow points the opposite direction. If you were
using an extremity then reversing the direction would cause the reference point to switch to
the other end of the spline.
Select the Point icon again and make sure the Point type is set to On curve and select
the curve on the right.
Turn on Repeat object after OK and select OK. The Points & Planes Repetition window
appears.
These options will be covered in detail a little later in the book. This was just meant to
introduce a method for creating multiple points.
Select Cancel. Only the one point is created. This completes the options for creating a
point on a curve.
Surfaces
Surfaces are extremely important for defining any type of contour. Using wireframe
geometry, you can create surfaces to represent any contour that you need. Once you have
created the surface(s) that you need you can then use them in Part Design to contour your
solid model. You have a variety of options to create surfaces. Some options are
straightforward while others are much more involved.
Extruded
Extruded surfaces are created by extruding an element in a linear direction. The resulting
object is called Extrude.
Open the Basic Surfaces document. You should see some wireframe geometry.
Extrusion Limits
Limit 1/2 Defines the direction and limits for the extrusion
Key 3.0 for Limit 1, 1.0 for Limit 2, select the Reverse Direction button and select OK.
The surface is created.
Select the Extrude icon again. The Extruded Surface Definition window appears.
Select the curve and plane as shown below. The plane defines the direction to be normal
to the plane.
Change the limits so that both are 1.0 inch and select OK. The surface is created.
Select the Revolve icon. The Revolution Surface Definition window appears. The
icon is located under the extrude icon.
Revolution axis Defines the axis around which the profile will revolve. If your profile
is a sketch and has an axis defined in it then that will be the default
revolution axis.
Angular Limits
Change Angle 1 to be 0.0 and Angle 2 to be 180 and select OK. The surface is created.
Select the Sphere icon. The Sphere Surface Definition window appears. The icon is
located under the extrude or revolve icon.
Sphere axis Determines the orientation of the Parallel and Meridian curves
Sphere Limitations
Parallel Start Angle Defines the starting angle in the parallel direction
Parallel End Angle Defines the ending angle in the parallel direction
Meridian Start Angle Defines the starting angle in the meridian direction
Meridian End Angle Defines the ending angle in the meridian direction
Change the Parallel Start Angle to -60, the Parallel End Angle to 30, the Meridian Start
Angle to 135 and the Meridian End Angle to 225, and select Preview.
Select the Whole Sphere icon from the window and select OK. Notice that all the
limit options were made unavailable.
Select the Cylinder icon. The Cylinder Surface Definition window appears. The
icon is located under the extrude or sphere icon.
Parameters
Select the Reverse Direction button and select OK. The surface is created.
Select the Offset icon. The Offset Surface Definition window appears.
Parameters
Maximum Deviation Defines the maximum amount the new surface can
vary from the original
Repeat object after OK Allows you to repeat the offset numerous times
Sub-Elements To Remove If an offset has problems then you can perform the offset
without the sub-elements that have errors. The sub-elements
will be listed in the Sub-Elements To Remove list. This is
useful when trying to determine why an offset fails. You can
Add or Remove sub-elements to the list.
Select the Reverse Direction button and select OK. The offset surface appears above the
original surface instead of below it.
Select the Offset icon again. The Offset Surface Definition window appears.
Select the surface as shown below, key 0.5 for the Offset and select Preview. An offset
surface appears below the original.
Note: Since the offset surface has a Repeat object after OK option, you can use the object
repetition icon on offset surfaces.
Open the Offset Surfaces document. You should see a surface that is comprised of three
sub-elements.
Select the Variable Offset icon. The Variable Offset Definition window appears.
The icon is located under the offset icon.
Global Surface Specifies the surface that is going to be offset, it should contain
multiple sub-elements
Add Before Allows you to add a sub-part before the current one
Add After Allows you to add a sub-part after the current one
Set the Offset option to be Constant and key 1.0 for the value.
Select Blend.1 from the specification tree and set the Offset option to be Variable. This
makes this sub-part variable.
Select Extrude.2 from the specification tree. This will be the last sub-part.
Set the Offset option to be Constant and key 0.25 for the value.