User Guide
Running the Product
Once configured and licensed, the product will be ready to be used.
Prior to initially using the translator CATIA V5 must have been launched at least once to allow the selection of the CATIA V5 licenses to be recorded in the users CATSettings folder. Once the CATSettings are generated the translator will be able to be executed either internally or externally to CATIA V5 until the CATSettings are removed. Therefore if you operate a procedure that programmatically generates the users CATSettings this requirement to maintain a reference to existing CATSettings must be considered when using the product in batch external to the CATIA V5 application.
All specific CATIA V5 environment configuration details are documented in JT Configuration File of this document.
Methods of Invoking the CADverter
The CATIA V5 <> NX Multi-CAD CADverters can be invoked with a variety of methods, these include;
Interactively from within CATIA V5 using standard CATIA V5 menu options such as “Insert Existing Component”.
From the Theorem Graphical User Interface (GUI)
From a command prompt window using the command line. This mechanism can be used to automate the translation process as part of any automated workflow.
Interactive usage within CATIA V5
Starting CATIA V5
In order to use the Theorem CADverter products interactively within the CATIA application, you must start CATIA V5 with the correct CATEnv environment settings. A desktop icon and a start menu item are both able to be created during the installation process to achieve this.
The desktop icon is labelled “Theorem Multi-CAD NX CATIAV5Rnn” (where nn is the release version.
The Start menu item is located under the “Start + All programs + CATIA” folder and is also named “Theorem Multi-CAD NX CATIAV5Rnn”.
Using “Insert Existing Component”
The CATIA V5 Multi-CAD architecture allows you to invoke the Theorem NX to V5 Multi-CAD translator to import components or assemblies into an active CATIA V5 CATProduct by using the “Insert > Existing Component…” menu item.
Also note that the CATIA associativity (Update Status Checker) mechanism can invoke the translator execution.
In order for the Theorem translator to be invoked from within CATIA V5, the setting of the “Preferred Conversion Technology” must be set to “Indirect” on the CATIA V5 Tools > Options > Compatibility > “External Formats” option page.
(See section - Setting Conversion Options in CATIA V5)
Note that this option page is only available if the TXX-THEOREM-MULTICAx GATEWAY (Theorem Partner) license is available which is provided by the Theorem license manager. Please see the Installation Guide for details.
There are some extra conversion options available to the Theorem User Interface that are not presented on the CATIA V5 External Formats options page.
One method to allow you to specify additional options to the NX to V5 Multi-CAD translator is provided by a configuration file that the translator reads during the conversion process.
The configuration file is named %TS_INST%\data\ug\ug_xcad_opts.txt and contains information on the various options that can be specified using this method.
On invoking the “Insert Existing Component…” command in CATIA V5, and selecting a product node for the ‘insert’ operation, you will see the following file selector. The “NX Files” file type should be selected and a NX “.prt” file chosen.
The translation will now proceed and the CATIA V5 representation of the NX assembly/components will be incorporated in the active CATProduct.
It is worth noting here that CATIA launches and manages a conversion sub-process that feeds the option page settings into the Theorem Multi-CAD translator via a temporary file named %CATTemp%\UGToNavConfigs.txt
This is referenced using the ‘-c <config_file>’ command line option.
The Theorem User Interface allows you to select a CATIA generated configuration file as described above, but if none is selected, a default configuration file installed with the Theorem software under %TS_INST%\data\ug\UGToNavConfigs.txt will be used. For further information on the CATIA V5 Multi-CAD integration methods and commands see the CATIA Infrastructure Documentation.
The Theorem NX to V5 Multi-CAD translator is also invoked when the CATIA “Update Status Checker” command determines that a NX part file that was previously inserted using “Insert Existing Component” has been subsequently modified outside of the CATIA environment.
For further information on the usage of the CATIA commands “Insert Existing Component” and “Update Status Checker”, consult the CATIA Documentation under headings:
Mechanical Design → Assembly Design
Here you will find topics - “Insert an Existing Component” - “User Tasks” → “Updating an Assembly”
Visualizing Inserted Annotations
It should be noted that when you perform the “Insert Existing Component” command with a NX file containing PMI data, you must perform the following operations to visualise it if the Link Mode used is ‘Visu’ or ‘Visu Snap’
Activate a workbench supporting FTA operations such as with menu item “Start > Mechanical Design > Product Functional Tolerancing & Annotation”.
Use menu “Insert > Visualization > List Annotation Set Switch On/Switch Off”
Enable the listed Annotation Sets and apply the change.
The CATIA V5 XCAD to NX processing messages, errors and warnings are recorded in a ‘.log’ file located in the CATIA CATReport directory. The file is named after the active selected CATIA part/product name. E.g. if the part/product Mypart were selected, the log file name would be %CATReport%\Mypart.log.
A summary file is also produced which contains key information and the process completion status information. It is named after then log file with the additional suffix .summary. (e.g. %CATReport%\Mypart.log.summary).
From the command line
The Theorem User Interface provides the ability to generate conversion command lines that are appended to a nominated batch file for subsequent execution.
%TS_INST%\bin\cad_run.cmd <translator_name>
-i <input_file_name>
-o <output_file_name>
[other options]
This is wrapped in a cmd.exe ‘call’ command to redirect output as follows:
call <cmd> > <screen_and_error_output_file> 2>&1
E.g. here is a command line example from a batch file:
call "C:\Theorem\CAD_27.1_MC5NX_WIN.01\bin\cad_run.cmd" NX2212_CATIA5R29XCAD -i
C:\theorem 27.1 testing\CAD_27.1_MC5NX_WIN.01\samples\nx\landing_gear_linkage\
Landing_gear_linkage_assy.prt -o c:\temp\ Landing_gear_linkage_assy.CATProduct
mode_catpart progress_file c:\temp\ Landing_gear_linkage_assy.log > c:\temp\
Landing_gear_linkage_assy.log 2>&1
NX to CATIA V5 MultiCAD Usage
Setting Conversion Options in CATIA
If you have the TXX-THEOREM-MULTICAx license, the following categories of options will be visible from the CATIA menu - Tools > Options on the Compatibility “External Formats” page
Visu Format Unit
Preferred Conversion Technology
Link Mode
Preferred Translation Mode
Others
Output of generated data
Ideas
ProEngineer
Some of these settings are accessible to the Theorem CATIA V5 to NX Multi-CAD NX translator when it is run in both interactive and command line (batch) mode.
Visu Format Unit
- Millimeters per unit
The conversion of units from NX parts is incorporated into the Theorem CADverter, so this value should always be set to 1.00
Preferred Conversion Technology
Indirect
This parameter determines that the 3rd party Theorem converters will be used in conversion operations.
Direct
This parameter determines that the Dassault Systemes converters will be used in conversion operations.
Link Mode
Visu
Tesselated data. By default, this option is activated.
Visu Snap
Selecting this option forces the processing of NX precise BREP geometry to generate a CATIA V5 CGR output. In addition canonical shape properties are also generated in the CGR file. Consequently the CGR data resulting from importing NX will have additional geometry snapping capabilities. After selecting this option, this message appears: “Please, restart session to take modifications into account”.
CATPart
This option causes the import of exact/brep geometry from the NX file to be created in CATPart form.
Preferred Translation Mode
Selecting this option controls if links will be retained between the source NX files which are imported, and the resulting CATIA files generated. In Multi-CAD mode, links are retained and modifications are locked, in Translator mode, links are not retained and modifications are allowed.
Others
Save Co-ordinate system in Cgr
This option saves the NX PMI co-ordinate system data into the derived CGR representation when Visu output is selected. Note this feature would also require the 3D Annotation setting to be selected to create the required output.
3D Annotation
This parameter determines whether 3D annotation data, referred to as “PMI” data in NX, will be imported.
(Note, requires one of the following licenses):
CATIA: FT1.prd or FTA.prd
ENOVIA: DT1.prd
DELMIA: MTR.prd or MFT.prd
Output of generated data
Output Path
Setting the Output Path location enables you to customize the folder location that is used when writing the derived CATIA V5 generated data. It specifies the location where CGR, CATPart and CATProducts will be generated.
The NX to CATIA V5 Multi-CAD options file
There are some extra conversion options available in the Theorem CADverter GUI that are not presented to the user on the CATIA External Formats options page.
A mechanism to allow you to specify additional options to the NX to V5 Multi-CAD translator is provided via a text file that the translator reads during the conversion process.
The default location of this options file is defined in the %TS_INST%\bin\TheoremProps.txt file by the setting:
Theorem.NxServerCfile=%TS_INST%\\data\\ug\\ug_xcad_opts.txt
This text file can be edited to contain any of the following command line options on a separate line:
- info
Outputs extra processing information to log files
- debug
Outputs extra debugging information to log files help diagnose problems.
- noprep
This option affects the reading of Parasolid data within the NX file. By default the brep data is prepared for writing to another system by steps such as removing small edges, splitting complex faces, and converting surfaces to NURBS. This option disables this preparation and uses the original parasolid definition.
- rd_native_edge
By default some analytic edge definitions are converted to NURBS curves. This option forces the use of native analytic edge definitions.
- show_axis_system
By default axis systems are created in CATIA hidden visibility space. This option will create them in the shown visibility space.
- read_blank
By default entities which are blanked are not read. This option allows the reading of blanked entities.
- ignore_std_views
By default the translator will read standard views (top,right,front etc). This option forces these views to be ignores.
The NX to V5 Progress and Log File Outputs
The NX to CATIA V5 XCAD process log and error messages are recorded in a ‘.log’ file located in the CATIA CATReport directory. A process summary file is also produced here which contains the completion status of the conversion. These files are named after the selected input file name. E.g. if the file Landing_gear_linkage_assy.prt were selected, the log and summary file names would be %CATReport%\Landing_gear_linkage_assy.log and %CATReport%\tea.log.summary.
If the NX to CATIA V5 XCAD process is run using the CADVerter GUI or using the command line option ‘progress_file’ <name>, the log file output will honour this name, and the summary file will be named similarly with the suffix ‘.summary’.
The V5 to NX Progress and Log File Outputs
The CATIA V5 XCAD to NX process log and error messages are recorded in a ‘.log’ file located in the CATIA CATReport directory. The file is named after the selected output file name. E.g. if the file Mypart were selected, the log file names would be %CATReport%\Mypart.log and %CATReport%\Mypart.log.summary.
If the CATIA V5 XCAD to NX process is run using the CADVerter GUI or using the command line option ‘progress_file’ <name>, the process log and error messages will be output to the specified name, and the summary file will also be named after this name with the suffix ‘.summary’.
Using the Theorem User Interface
Default Translations
The Unified Interface can be started via the Start Menu – if a shortcut was added during installation.
Alternatively, the Unified Interface can be run via a Windows Explorer selection in:
<UI_installation_directory>\bin\Unified_Interface.cmd
The following interface will be launched:
The default layout is split into 4 primary areas, which can be altered to the users preference:
The simplest way to translate from CATIA V5 or NX is to drag a file from the file Browser Pane on to the Active Configurations for the translation you require.
On completion, the Unified Interface will display the activity information and details from the log file created during the translation, if requested, in the Translation Activity and Output Log panes, respectively.
The generated output data can be located by selecting the translation from the Activity pane and opening the output folder:
NX to V5 translations using the Command Line
To run the translator from the command line you must ensure that the CATIA V5 environment is set correctly. The easiest method to achieve this is to use the standard CATIA start-up process. This uses the following syntax;
%V5_INSTALL_PATH%\win_b64\code\bin\CATSTART.exe
-run "%TS_INST%\B%V5_VER%\win_b64\code\bin\UGToNav.exe
%COMMAND_LINE_ARGUMENTS%"
-env Theorem_Multi-CAD_NX90_CATIAV5R%V5_VER%
-direnv "%TS_INST%\B%V5_VER%\win_b64\CATEnv"
Where;
%V5_INSTALL_PATH% = the path to the CATIA V5 installation e.g C:\Program Files\Dassault Systems\v5r29\B29
%TS_INST% = the path to the Theorem Solutions installation e.g. C:\Theorem\CAD_27.1_MC5NX_WIN.01
%V5_VER% = the version of CATIA V5 that is being used e.g. 27, 28 or 29
%COMMAND_LINE_ARGUMENTS% = these will depend upon the type of Link Mode data type that you want to create in the output e.g. VISU, VISU+SNAP or CATPart
Link Mode = Visu
Command Line Arguments
-c %TS_INST%\data\ug\UGToNavConfigs.txt
-i <input_NX_filename>
-oproduct <output_CATProduct_filename>
-d <path_to_output_folder>
read_pmi – optional argument to process NX PMI data. Note this requires access to a V5 FTA license
e.g.
-c %TS_INST%\data\ug\UGToNavConfigs_VISU.txt -i %TS_INST%\samples\ug\NIST\
nist_ctc_01_asme1_ct5210_rd.prt -oproduct C:\temp\NIST_01.CATProduct -d C:\temp read_pmi
Default Translation – via the Alternate Command Line Interface
Running a translation via the alternate command line can be carried out via the cad_run.cmd file located in the <installation_directory>\bin directory. The format of the command is as follows when translating from CATIA V5 to NX:
<Translator_installation_directory>\bin\cad_run.cmd CATIA5R[XX]XCAD_NX[YY] -i <input_file> -o <output_file>
The format of the command is as follows when translating from NX to CATIA V5:
<Translator_installation_directory>\bin\cad_run.cmd NX[YY]_CATIA5R[XX]XCAD -i <input_file> -o <output_file>
(Note! Replace the [XX] seen in the example with the version of CATIA V5 you are using. E.g. for CATIA V5 R29, change to 29
Replace the [YY] seen in the example with the version of NX you are using. E.g. for Siemens NX 2007, change to 2007
The example above will translate a CATIA sample file provided within the installation and produce the following screen output:
Translator Customization
The Theorem translator allows the information that is read from the source system and written to the target system to be tailored via a set of user specified arguments. Commonly used arguments are supported via the Unified Interface, with Advanced Arguments being described within this document for use in the Unified Interface or via the Command Line invocation.
Common Options for CATIA V5 to NX
Within the Configuration Manager pane of the Unified Interface, arguments that can be specified when publishing CATIA V5 data into NX are grouped into 3 areas:
CATIA V5 Read – Those arguments that affect how data is read from CATIA V5
NX Write – Those arguments that affect how the data is written to NX
General – Those arguments that are common to ALL Publishing activities regardless of source data
CATIA V5 Read Arguments
The image below shows the CATIA V5 Read arguments that are available, with their default settings:
Each of these options is described below:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Preferred Read Data Type |
Allows the user to specify Exact or Tessellated read Command Line Syntax:
|
SAG Value |
Edit the SAG value being used (Default 0.2) Command Line Syntax:
|
Read 3D Annotations |
Read PMI (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Disable Points |
Disable the processing of standalone Points (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Disable Axis Systems |
Disable the processing of Axis Systems (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Disable Wireframe |
Disable the processing of standalone Wireframe (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Disable Surfaces |
Disable the processing of standalone Surfaces (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Disable Solids |
Disable the processing of solids (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
Export Body Names |
Create Body Named Containers (Default is OFF) Command Line Syntax:
|
NX Write Arguments
The image below shows the Write NX arguments that are available, with their default settings:
These options are described below:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Delete Existing Sub-parts |
Delete existing sub-parts. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
Concatenate Assembly Name |
Concatenates assembly name. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
Produce Tessellated Output |
Produce Tessellated NX file. Default is OFF Command Line Syntax:
|
CATIA V5 to NX General Arguments
The image below shows the General arguments that are available, with their default settings:
This option is described below:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Mass Properties |
Allows Mass Property information to be read from the source data and written as attributes to the PDF document. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
Out-of-range Layers |
How to handle layers from the input system that are out-of-range in the output system. Default is ‘Map To Layer’ Command Line Syntax:
|
Layer Number |
A secondary option used with Out-of-range Layers when ‘Map To Layer’ is selected. Allows the layer number to be specified. Default is 256. Command Line Syntax:
|
Advanced |
Allows any of the Command Line Advanced arguments documented below to be passed to the Unified Interface invocation |
Common Options for NX to CATIA V5
Within the Configuration Manager pane of the Unified Interface, arguments that can be specified when publishing NX data into CATIA V5 are grouped into 4 areas:
NX Read – Those arguments that affect how data is read from NX
CATIA V5 Write – Those arguments that affect how the data is written to CATIA V5
Entity Mask – Those arguments that allow specific read entities to be masked
General – Those arguments that are common to ALL Publishing activities regardless of source data
NX Read Arguments
The image below shows the NX Read arguments that are available, with their default settings:
Each of these options is described below.
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Reference Set |
Enabled reference set processing. Default is OFF Command Line Syntax:
|
Read NX Attributes |
Read NX detail user attributes. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
Read NX Names |
Read NX entity names, if they exist. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
Read PMI |
Read 3D PMI. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
CATIA V5 Write Arguments
The image below shows the CATIA V5 Write arguments that are available, with their default settings:
Each of these options is described below:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Link Mode Selection |
Write Visu, Visu Snap or CATPart data. Command Line Syntax:
|
Preferred Translation Mode |
Write non-editable Multicad or editable Translator data Command Line Syntax:
|
Axis Systems - Show |
Axis Systems set to Show state (Default is Off) Command Line Syntax:
|
Property Mapping File |
Specify a file which allows filtering of Detail user attributes. Default is OFF. Command Line Syntax:
|
NX to CATIA V5 Entity Masking Arguments
The image below shows the Masking arguments that are available, with their default settings:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Mask File |
Specifies the Mask File to be written to, that can be referenced by future translations. A Mask file MUST be specified if masking is required. The first line in this file is OFF ALL ENT: Command Line Syntax:
|
Entity Types Translated |
Specifies a selection list from which to select which entity types are to be processed. The following types are available: “POI”,”LIN”,”ARC”,”CON”,”CUR”,”SUR”,”FAC”,”SOL” Command Line Syntax:
|
Layers Translated |
Specifies a selection list from which to select which layers are to be processed. Command Line Syntax:
|
NX to CATIA V5 General Arguments
The image below shows the General arguments that are available, with their default settings:
The option is described below:
Option |
Description |
|---|---|
Advanced |
Allows any of the Command Line Advanced arguments provided by Theorem Solutions to be passed to the translator via the Unified Interface invocation |
CATIA V5 Configuration
Introduction
This section details how to define and configure the CATIA V5 and Theorem environment to work together.
Conventions
Release of CATIA V5
To indicate a release of CATIA V5 the notation <XX> shall be used. This needs to be replaced with the specific release to be used i.e. 28, 29, 30 or 31.
Platform specific directory
Within the installation directory of CATIA V5 there is a platform specific directory i.e. win_b64. This directory shall be referred to as <OSDS> in this Appendix.
Theorem Installation directory
The Theorem translator installation directory is set at installation time in the translator ts_env.bat file. This directory shall be noted as <%TS_INST%> in this Appendix.
CATIA V5 Installation Directory
Upon installation of a CATIA V5 product the user will be asked to specify the installation directory. This is the directory which contains the platform specific <OSDS> directory.
Having selected the CATIA V5 installation directory via the browse button, the installation process will record the location of the CATIA V5 installation directory in the ts_env.bat file. This file is located in the Theorem translator installation directory. If the location of CATIA V5 subsequently changes, the translator can be guided to the changed location by modifying this file using a text editor to modify the ts_env.bat that is located in the translator installation directory.
If no entry is included for DSLICENSING a warning dialog will be displayed which warns of the empty field. Selecting Yes to continue will allow the installation to continue.
Running CATIA V5 Translators
Before running the translator the user must run CATIA V5 interactively at least once to configure the CATIA V5 environment and license settings. This can be achieved by running the catia5r<XX>_start script as follows:
%TS_INST%\bin\catia5r<XX>_start.cmd
Once CATIA has been run the Translator can run as described in the relevant product User Guide.
CATIA V5 Environment DIRENV & ENV
The default location for CATIA V5 to store its global environment files is in the global directory:
Windows 7 & 8:
C:\ProgramData\DassaultSystemes\CATEnv
Or
%APPDATA%\CATEnv
You can find this location by running:
%CATIAV5_INST%\<OSDS>\code\bin\setcatenv -h
The environment files are named in the form CATIA.V5RN.B<XX>.txt
If when installing CATIA V5 the default environment file location was replaced with another location then this location needs to be indicated to the Translator by defining in the ts_env.bat the environment variable CATIAV5_DIRENV:
set CATIAV5_DIRENV=/some/directory
If the Theorem installation is needed to support multiple releases of CATIA. Then the user can define release specific locations using:
set CATIAV5R<XX>_DIRENV=/some/directory
The Theorem translator will attempts to create its own environment file called TheoremCatia5R<XX>.txt. The user must therefore have write permission to the CATEnv directory. If this is not possible an existing environment file can be specified using the variable CATIAV5_ENV. e.g.
set CATIAV5_ENV=CATIA.V5R29.B29
Note. the extension .txt is not required. The user can specify a release specific name using CATIAV5R<XX>_ENV e.g.
set CATIAV5R29_ENV=CATIA.V5R29.B29
Checking the CATIA V5 Environment
A script is provided to check that the CATIA V5 environment is set up correctly. In a command window run the command script:
%TS_INST%\bin\checkcatia5r<XX>env.cmd
