Catia v5 Shorts – Tips & Tricks
Restore & Reset lost Toolbars
Ever lost toolbars in catia v5, somehow toolbars suddenly vanished? Here is the way to bring them back.
Show hidden Toolbars
You´ve checked all toolbars, restored all contents and positions and the toolbar you are looking for is still missing? Then proceed like this – enjoy!
Change Size of Axis Systems and Planes
The default size of axis systems and planes is quite small. So in order to change that go to: tools – options – infrastructure – part infrastructure – Display – move the Slider.
Screen Lens - Quick Select
Quite often too many object are too close to each other. So in order to select a certain one you need some kind of quick select feature – in catia v5 it is a screen lens, activated by pressing one of the arrow keys on your keyboard – enjoy.
Show Parameters and Relations/Formulas in the Tree
If you want to see your parameters and formulas/relations with values in the tree – just proceed like this – enjoy!
Deactivate Zoom on Tree ( switch between Tree and Model)
The name of this option is kind of misleading. So if you deactivate the „Zoom on Tree“, you can´t switch between „Tree-mode“ (zoom and pan the tree) and „Modelspace-mode“ by accident anymore. Which by the way, is a good thing, because it happens very often that you click on one of the branches of the tree by accident. You can always switch by clicking on the axis-system in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Automatically Insert Axis System
If you activate that option, those 3 default planes will be hidden and you will get an axis system in your part document. But take care this axis system will have those hidden planes as parents. That is good enough for exercises, but for real construction you should use a different axis system. This will be shown in Catia v5 Shorts #008.
Set up the "correct" Axis System
So this „correct“ Axis System has just one „Parent“ – and that is the way you want it to do.
Normal View with Compass
You can quickly change to a normal view along one of the axis by clicking on the compass letters x,y,z
Edit Dimensions with Manipulators
You can activate additional Manipulators for the editing of dimensions in the drawing.
Text in a sketch and 3D Text in a part
Make a Catia Drawing – insert the text – save that drawing as „dxf“ file – open that dxf-file in your drafting workbench – select these curves – copy thes curves – CTRL+C – switch to your part – make/open a sketch – insert these curves CTRL+V – use that sketch for whatever you want.
Split Plane with a Sketch
Easy way to create a planar surface of any shape – split plane with a sketch
Size independent from View Scale
If you make a section view from a very small or a very big part you callout symbols will be either very big or very small – you can fix this with the right click context menu – properties – callout – activate – size not dependent from view scale.
Quick Detail View vs. Detail View
If you want to make a detail view from the drawing view – ie. including the breakout – you have to use the „quick detail view“ – otherwise you will get a detail view from the model without the breakout.
Create a Rigid FixTogether (almost like a block)
You can create FixTogethers in a sketch, which work almost like a block.
Create a flexible FixTogether (almost like a dynamic block)
You can create rigid and non rigid/flexible FixTogethers almost like a dynamic block
Instantiate a FixTogether in a different sketch
You can instantiate a FixTogether in a different sketch as well.
Assembly in a Sketch - Animate Constraint
You can use FixTogethers like parts to build an assembly in a sketch and then animate a constraint to drive it.
Propagate Directory (sort of pack and go)
Instead of a pack & go command, there is none in catia v5, you can use the Save Management and Propagate Directory to put all the parts and tne product (assembly) in one folder and then zip this folder and give it to someone else.
Filet/Round/Chamfer all Corners in a Sketch at once
Using the User Selection Filter you can round/chamfer all corners of a sketch at once.
Create 2D Components (blocks) in a Drawing
In the Drafting Workbench you can create 2D Components, which work like Blocks in Autocad
Instantiate 2D Components
In order to use 2D Components you have to instantiate these Components
User Pattern along a Curve / Path
There is no pattern along a curve / path in Catia v5 – but you can use a User Pattern and a sketch with a spline with equidistant points on the spline.
Spiralcurve in a sketch easy
You can create a spiralcurve in a sketch without having a spiral feature in the sketch workbench but having a 3D helix feature.
