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Ever had a sweep that just seemed to give errors and did not want to form the way it should. One thing we at CDC have learnt is that CATIA has almost no limits as to what can be done with Surfacing. There is always a way! This CATIA tutorial will show you how to control a sweep more effectively.

Here we have an extruded surface created from a door punch surface. Now we would like to pinch a new surface inward at 45deg to the extruded surface and at a length of 70mm.

Here everything looks fine but if we increase the sweep length to 250mm, we can see that the surfaces are 45deg but the direction is wrong and there are warnings that appear (still nice that CATIA can generate a surface though (“,) ). This is because the 45deg is normal to the surface, so in sharp corners errors will normally occur.

So, how do fix this sweep? Easy… we give it a back bone or a “spine” to give it some sort of direction. We create a sketch an in it a circle. The dimensions of the circle are not critical.

Now back in the Sweep definition, we need to add the sketch as a spine. And then on preview we can see how smooth the sweep is now.

Set the sweep length back to 70mm and know that it is much easier to manufacture now as the surface is smooth and has no sharp edges or undercuts.

I hope you enjoyed this CATIA Tutorial brought to you compliments of CDC your technology partner.

We can create interactive product documentation, animation, technical illustrations and more by reusing your 3D CAD data. 
We use 3DVIA Composer to avoid a costly deliverable production process, having to re-do documentation when there is a design change and more…

By using 3DVIA Composer, we can quickly and easily automate your deliverable production processes while reducing costs and improving quality.

Now you don’t need to manufacture your product before you can market it. Using a free player anyone can view your lightweight 3D data, with animations designed to show your customer what you want them to see.

 Click the image to see a small AVI

The Bulb file here is small and simple (392KB). Please contact us and we will send you the bulb’s file. You can then download the Free player and play around with the bulb, play the animation and see some snapshots. Imagine showing your data to a prospective client. We can convert almost any 3D CAD data.

Download the FREE player at the link below…

http://www.3ds.com/products/3dvia/3dvia-composer/resource-center/

Bear in mind this is a simple demo and there is so much more we can do to make you product look more attractive to the potential buyer.

Just to wet your taste buds further:

Serious Airplane teaser

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0eEAOEhVo&feature=related

Field Service by Hagie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrdrAlYVL6M&feature=related

Volvo maintenance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqOC2-Gct00

CDC is comprised of experienced, qualified and highly skilled mechanical engineers who are able provide the following engineering design services:

• Product Design
• Product Development for Commercial and Industrial Products
• Custom Machinery Design
• Mechanical Engineering Design Documentation
• Virtual Product Testing and Validation
• Virtual Manufacturing Simulations
• Kinematic Analysis and Clash Detection of all Machinery
• Equipment Design
• Materials Testing Machinery
• 2D Drafting
• Project Planning and Cost Estimation
• Reverse Engineering

By choosing CDC as your design partner you are taking advantage of our years of mechanical engineering design experience and knowledge. All of our mechanical engineers use the world’s leading CAD/CAM/CAE software, CATIA V5, which means that your project will be completed faster with the benefit of virtually simulating performance to ensure that it is right the first time with no need for costly prototypes.

All we need is your PDS (Product Design Specifications) and we will do the rest.

Call us now to talk to one of our highly skilled mechanical design engineers!

This CATIA tutorial shows you how to Create Scenes and use them for Draughting

Ever created an isometric view in the Draughting work bench of an assembly, then changed the location of parts in an assembly and when you go back to your drawing you find it has updated the drawing to that of the assembly. This is good to have as it is part of the power of CATIA with its associativity. But sometimes you want views to keep their positions, i.e. you want an assembled isometric view as well as an exploded view.

We have our assembly…

We create an isometric view…

Now the problem arises when you edit the main assembly and then the drawing up dates as well. So we need to create a scene, for exploded views or even where only specific parts are shown.

Make sure you select the full overload option before clicking OK.

Hide, show, move and rotate parts until you get the view you want and then click to exit the scene (same icon as exit sketcher), you can see in the tree that there is a new Scene.1 that has been created.

Here are only a few parts that need to be shown…

An exploded view…

Now to apply these scenes to the drawing, double click on the scene you want, then from the Draughting workbench create a view and in your assembly which should be in the scene you want click on the Scene you want in the tree first, then click on the model to generate the view.