The 3D ACIS® Modeler (ACIS) is Spatial’s prominent 3D solid modeling engine. 3D InterOp is a CAD data translation framework (Interoperability)

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The CATIA V5 Writer component writes CATIA V5 files. This component is in the form of shared libraries. InterOp Connect supports translation of the following file formats and versions:

Features

Features of the CATIA V5 Writer include:

• License

Uses native standalone CATIA V5 libraries to perform CATIA V5 operations. These libraries are delivered with the product. No separate licenses of CATIA V5 are required for using this translator. However, the mapping function callback feature is enabled only if a CATIA V5 license is available.

• Continuity Compliance
• Small Model Units
• Support for Surface Trimming
• Support for Multilevel Assembly
• Mapping Function Callback

Provides a method to check the generated CATIA V5 entities with the corresponding input geometry.

Options for CATIA V5 Writer

^{* Not available for Parasolid product line.}

Document

Axis System, Layer, Layer Filter and Selection Set

The CATIA V5 Writer imports the following:

• Axis System information including name and current status.
• Layer and Layer Filter information including name and current status and entities in the layer, layers in layer filter.
• Selection Sets information including name and current status and entities in the Selection Set.

Line Thickness

While translating to CATIA V5, all thicknesses are mapped to the following thicknesses supported by the CATIA V5 modeler(1-8).

In case the thickness to be mapped is other than the above, the nearest value out of the above is selected.

Assembly

• Support for Multilevel Assembly

3D InterOp Connect provides support for translation of multilevel assemblies from XML-EBOM file to CATIA V5 file format. You can control the translation of multilevel assemblies by using the AssemblySaveType option.

• Support for Translation of Hidden Instances

The CATIA V5 Assembly Writer supports translation of hidden instances from source assembly. If you set the TranslateHiddenEntities option to true, hidden instances from the source assembly are imported into CATProduct and marked as hidden.

BRep

• Continuity Compliance

Imported geometry that is not compliant with the continuity requirement (C2 continuous) of CATIA V5 formats are split on discontinuities. Based on continuity requirements, the topology is modified accordingly.

• Small model units

Imported geometry smaller than 0.001 model units is suppressed during the translation and the topology is modified accordingly.

• Support for Surface Trimming

3D InterOp Connect provides an option to control the trimming of surfaces while translating from ACIS to CATIA V5 to ACIS format. While translating from ACIS to CATIA V5 to ACIS format, the original surfaces in ACIS file were trimmed in the resultant ACIS file. A new option, PreserveSurfaceLimits, is now available that you can use in the first phase of translation, ACIS to CATIA V5, to prevent trimming of surfaces. In the second phase:

• If ExportUseSurfaceLimits option is set to TRUE, trimming will not be performed.
• If ExportUseSurfaceLimits is set to FALSE, all the surfaces for which PreserveSurfaceLimits option is not set will be trimmed to the face boundaries.

Visualization

CATIA V5 Writer can write Visualization (Scenegraph) data to CGR files. Set the Representation user option to Visualization.

Mesh

Mesh data is a collection of triangles that define a shape within the model. CATIA V5 Writer supports writing of Mesh data to CATIA V5 format. Set the Representation user option to Mesh.

Limitations

The CATIA V5 Writer has the following limitations:

• No Support for File Names with Non-ASCII Characters

The CATIA V5 Writer does not support writing CATIA V5 files that are named using non-ASCII characters. CATIA V5 is based on the ISO 646 standard, which does not support multi-byte character code. If you specify CATIA V5 file name to be written with non-ASCII characters, the CATIA V5 Writer will replace non-ASCII characters in the file name with "_" (underscore) and write the file with that name. This applies to Assembly and Part files. For example, if you want to write C1a4-ヵД.CATProduct from C1a4-ヵД.xml referring to C1a4_part_(カヵ).sat and C1a4_partüДч.sat, the CATIA V5 Writer will write C1a4-__.CATProduct, C1a4_part_(__).CATPart and C1a4_part___.CATPart.

• No Support for Writing Visualization Files from Prior Versions

The CATIA V5 Writer does not support saving Visualization (.cgr) files from previous versions of CATIA V5. The use of the option CATIAV5.BRep.SaveVersion is not supported for .cgr files.

• No Support for Certain Characters in PartNumber of a CATPart File

The CATIA V5 Writer does not support characters such as, "! ", ":", "/", "\\" in the PartNumber of a CATPart file. Each forbidden character in the PartNumber is replaced by an underscore, "_", while writing a CATIA V5 assembly.

• Translation of Line-type and Line-thickness Attributes

This feature applies to free wires and curves only; it does not apply to edges.