TIPS N TRICKS
 
 

 CATIA TIP 1

When there are several CATIA V5 environments available to choose from, the CATIA end user often forgets which Environment had been used to start the current CATIA V5 session. Is there a way to put a label somewhere in the working view of CATIA V5 so that the end user can easily identify the CATIA Environment currently in use?

Solution

The environment name can be inserted in the title bar of the CATIA window on any CATIA V5 platform (Windows, UNIX), but as of CATIA V5R16, there is not a standard configurable option nor setting in CATIA V5 for doing this.

Here is an example of how to modify the title bar of the window in which CATIA V5 R16 is running on AIX:

1. In each CATIA V5 environment file, add an environment-specific folder path name in front of the default value for CATMsgCatalogPath. For example:

CATMsgCatalogPath=/CATEnv/Env1_msgcatalog:/usr/DassaultSystemes/B16/aix_a/resources/msgcatalog

Note the use of the ":" (colon) character in the above string, in order to prepend the new path name in front of the standard path name.

2. In the environment-specific folder referenced above, create a file named CATIA.CATNls, containing the following single line:

ApplicationFrame.Title = "CATIA V5 ENVIRONMENT 1";

Note: The character string contained within the quotes will appear in the window title bar, when CATIA V5 is run using this particular environment.

Repeat the above steps for each CATIA V5 environment, specifying a unique character string for each ApplicationFrame.Title parameter.

Although the above example is shown for CATIA V5R16 on AIX, this technique can be used for other platforms and other CATIA V5 releases, by modifying the path names appropriately.

 

 CATIA TIP 2

Can a tab delimited text file (.csv), a text (.txt), or rich text format (.rtf) file containing point coordinate data be opened in CATIA V5?
"File>Open" will not open these file types.

Cause

Text files containing point data cannot be read using "File>Open", but must be read using specific workbenches/tools provided in CATIA V5.

Solution

1) Ensure that you have a license that provides you with access to the Digitized Shape editor, the STL Rapid Prototyping, or the Shape Sculptor workbench.
2) Start one of the above listed workbenches.
3) Select the "Import" icon from the toolbar.
4) "Cloud Import" menu appears.
5) In the "Format" field, select the pull-down arrow.
6) Select, "Ascii free", from the list of choices.
7) In the "Selected File" field, select the "..." browse tool.
8) "File Selection" menu appears.
9) In the "Files of type" field, select "All (*.*)".
10) Browse to and select the ".txt" or ".csv" or ".rtf", etc. file.
11) Select "OK" to finish browsing.
12) Select the "Apply" button in the "Cloud Import" menu.
13) The point file information is displayed in the V5 graphic window and in the tree.
14) Select "OK" to close the menu.

 

 
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