Product
Capabilities
118 tools, grouped by what they do for you. The maturity of every tool is stated openly in the handbook – limits included.
Understand 25
Read parts, assemblies and parameters before anything is changed.
Usable 17 Limited 8
- Part profile: features, parameters, bodies
- Capture material, mass and properties
- Product structure and bill of materials of an assembly
- Find update status and causes of errors in the model
- Detect release and service pack of the CATIA installation
Create & modify 74
Create geometry and data in the running CATIA session – on working copies.
Usable 39 Limited 26 Experimental 9
- Sketches, pads, pockets, holes, patterns
- Surfaces (GSD): points, lines, planes, splines, loft, sweep
- Set parameters, formulas and properties
- Sheet metal skeleton: tilted planes, spot welds, bend radii
- Views, images and exports (STEP, IGES, STL)
Verify 12
Measure, compare and check against rules – much of it without CATIA.
Usable 8 Limited 3 Experimental 1
- Measure volume, mass, centre of gravity, distances
- Check the clearance between elements against required values
- Check sheet metal rules: radii, distances, beads, cups, sealing
- Plan hole patterns, spot welds, load cases and locating schemes in advance
- Effect check: did the feature really change material?
Scale 7
Folders, batches and company rules instead of part by part.
Usable 3 Limited 4
- Quality report across a folder of released parts, with run time
- Batch summary and batch export
- Bill of materials as CSV for Excel
- List company rule packs and explain every rule
- Multi-step workflows with return to a checkpoint (behind a switch)
Maturity
| Level | Meaning | Tools |
|---|---|---|
| Usable | Implementation plausible after code review and offline tests; the surface tools were also tested in CATIA by the base project. Use it and check the result like any design change. | 67 |
| Limited | Works only within a narrower scope than described, or part of the output is questionable. Use it only within that scope and always measure the result. | 41 |
| Experimental | Known or strongly suspected defect. Do not use for real work – carry out the step in CATIA by hand. | 10 |
The levels are based on code analysis and offline tests with a simulator and real COM transport. After validation in a real CATIA they are confirmed or corrected per tool. The handbook calls them usable, limited and not reliable; the reasons per tool are in its chapter 8.
Technical view: tools per module
For technical evaluation: the same tools by server module.
| Area | Tools | Typical tasks | Usable | Limited | Experimental |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session and documents | 9 | Open, create and save parts, read a part summary | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| Sketches | 11 | Lines, rectangles, circles, arcs, constraints | 8 | 3 | 0 |
| Solids (Part Design) | 15 | Pad, pocket, shaft, groove, hole, patterns | 2 | 7 | 6 |
| Surfaces (Generative Shape Design) | 24 | Points, splines, loft, sweep, offset, thicken | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Assemblies | 9 | Insert, list and move components | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Measuring and parameters | 6 | Volume, mass, centre of gravity, distances, parameters | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Views and export | 4 | Standard views, images, STEP/IGES/STL | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Journal and undo (new) | 4 | Show and undo the changes of a session | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Product structure and batch (new) | 7 | Properties, formulas, bill of materials, folder summary and export | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Engineering, material, diagnosis (new) | 7 | Update diagnosis, material, writing properties, finding faces, parameters and formulas | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Planning without CATIA (new) | 8 | Calculate hole patterns, spot welds and load cases in advance, check, compare | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Checks (new) | 1 | Check the clearance between named elements against required values | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Creating variants (new) | 1 | Create a planned hole pattern on a working copy and measure it | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Sheet metal skeleton (new) | 4 | Spot welds, tilted planes and bend radii for sheet metal parts | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Diagnostics and support (new) | 3 | Check the set-up, session state, support bundle without model data | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Company rule packs (new) | 2 | List and explain own limits and rules without a software update | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Workflows (new, behind a switch) | 1 | Run several steps with expectations and return to the checkpoint in the server | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Capabilities (new) | 1 | Detect release, service pack and reachable entry points of CATIA | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Quality report (new) | 1 | Check a folder of released parts against a quality profile, with run time | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 118 | 67 | 41 | 10 |