CAD Tutorials

CATIA V5 - Automatic Feature Recognition

2013-04-30T10:09:00.001-04:00

Part Design Feature Recognition is intended to recognize Part Design feature from a dumb solid. The user imports a part and can recover elementary Part Design features.

CATIA V4 to V5 Transfer 2D drawing

2013-04-22T14:05:00.000-04:00

A previous video showed how to convert 3D V4 data to V5. This time we show how to convert 2D drawing data to V5 Drafting workbench. There will be no link between the 2 versions but at least you have the data in V5 to print and do simple changes.

CATIA V5 - 3D XML and Functional Tolerancing and annotation (FTA)

2013-03-15T12:05:00.003-04:00

This is video tip on how to benefit from the FREE 3D XML viewer found on the official Dassault website. It's a great tool for those looking for to share their 3D FTA (commonly known as GD&T) with users who don't have access to CATIA V5. You also can insert the 3DXML file into an Office document and capture the design from any angle.

CATIA V5 - GSD - Review Part history

2013-02-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

Many of us design parts or receive models that are quite complex. To go through the spec tree is a long and difficult task. In Generative Shape design (Surfacing) there's a nice hidden feature that allows you to review the part history quickly without having to run the "Define In work object" function. It give you a good insight into how the part was modelled which makes modifications easier.

CATIA V5 - Sheetmetal - MultiBody approach

2013-02-15T11:26:00.001-05:00

With Sheetmetal multi-body capabilities, designers can decompose parts following a logical representation, simplifing partbodies exchange and enabling a better understanding of the design. CATIA Sheetmetal Design provides the user with a sketcher that allows rapid definition and edition of sheet metal part profiles.

CATIA V5 - Functional Molded Part modeling

2013-01-14T14:48:00.001-05:00

The objective of functional modeling is to enable product designers to focus on the functional goals and design constraints of their product. Capturing this information in the product model provides the information from which geometric form can be derived through the combination of behavioral features and a minimum of geometric construction. The end result is a significant reduction in the effort required to generate the 3D model by allowing more time for designers to focus on engineering issues, exploring alternative design approaches, and optimizing their design

IronCAD - How to add geometry to existing drawings

2013-01-07T15:17:00.003-05:00

Bring in dwg or dxf and merge them into the same file. Simple but an effective way to bring geometry together.

IronCAD - How to Spin Revolve a part

2013-01-07T15:02:00.001-05:00

Use the spinning method to create a 3D shape or surface by rotating a 2D profile/face around an axis. For example, when you create a 2D cross-section of a right triangle, it is rotated to create a 3D cone.

Because the cross-section spins around an axis, the resulting 3D shape or surface always has a circular nature and must follow a straight path around the axis.

CATIA V5 - NC - STL machining

2012-12-20T13:36:00.001-05:00

This is a quick video that shows how to import and STL file and actually machine in CATIA V5. As it's probably well known, STL files are not that usable outside of 3D printing. But, V5 has the ability to handle such files pretty nicely. Also, note the use of the limiting curve at the end as it helps us in confining the area the tool cuts. There's is no audio with this demo.

Click here to download the file used in the video.

CATIA V5 - NC - Extract Surface and Axis System

2012-11-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you end up with a really large die or casting but you simply want to machine a certain part of it without having to load the entire model. This demo shows how to extract the needed surfaces. Also, it's useful to copy the die origin as that can act as your machining origin.

CATIA V5 - NC - Geometry Creation based on Imported NC file

2012-10-24T14:13:00.005-04:00

Sometimes all you have is a G-code file with no geometry. V5 allows you to import the file and create points from the coordinates. These points can be connect using a polyline or a spline.

ENOVIA DMU Realistic Rendering

2012-08-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

CATIA V5 - Composites

2012-07-11T23:49:00.000-04:00

This is video meant to show CATIA's capability in the composites workbench. It's not a training video but it just shows what V5 can accomplish in this growing sector in the industry.

CATIA V5 - Flattening and transferring features in Part Design

2012-06-07T13:17:00.000-04:00

This is a demo for a bent aerospace beam. The faces are unruled. To add to the difficulty, it's not really an intelligent part. To bring it into a 2D drawing, we need to flatten it and transfer all the cuts and fillets into the final version. It's almost like reverse engineering the whole part again.You can extract some details such as the beam profile as well as the overall length to produce the extrusion length. It's a laborious task but the result is worth the effort.

CATIA V5 - How to Compare Similar Parts

2012-04-30T09:46:00.001-04:00

This is demo on how to compare products that are similar but not exactly the same. It's available in the DMU space analysis workbench. CATIA will overlap the 2 parts or assemblies and color code the added material in red and the removed material in green. It's a great tool when you are looking for a quick way of telling the difference between parts.

CATIA V5 - How to Generate G codes in NC mode

2012-02-03T08:51:00.000-05:00

The most important part about using CATIA V5 NC is to generate G-codes. In this demo we show how to create a sample program. There are certain steps required to to create the program successfully. You must specify the directory where the files go in the Tools>Options. Otherwise, your files will end up in the wrong folder and finding them will be a challenge.

Sample V5 file and program

CATIA V5 - Hide/Show Geometric sets quickly

2011-11-16T13:22:00.001-05:00

Some users need to hide show certain aspects of the design and some others. The Search tool allows you to do just that.

CATIA V5 - How to design in context (Top down design)

2011-09-16T11:21:00.001-04:00

This demo shows how you can develop a new part in the context of the assembly, also known as Top down design. The files are straight from the CATIA V5 help system. So anyone can try it out.

CATIA V5 Quick tip - How to unfold sheetmetal parts

2011-09-14T16:06:00.002-04:00

CATIA V5 Quick tip - How to drill a hole on a tapered cylindrical shaft

2011-05-13T13:33:00.000-04:00

Trying to add a hole on a tapered cylinder is usually a hard thing in CAD software, especially if you want the hole to be normal to the surface. This hidden trick shows how to do just that quickly in V5.

CATIA V5 Quick Tip - Simple Mold design approach

2011-04-14T15:39:00.001-04:00

I created this demo to illustrate how to make a part ready for molding in V5 using the Multi-Body approach. No real need for an assembly to be created here. Just use boolean operations to handle such parts. If you'd like to try to do it yourself, here's a link to the CATIA files:

Part Files

CATIA V5 - How to Simplify a Surface, then Flatten it in 2D

2011-03-30T14:37:00.003-04:00

More often than not, we get surfaces that are too complex for our needs. This video shows how to take a multifaceted surface and turn it into a simple, easier to deal with element. The rough Offset will do the trick as the standard offset tool does not know how to deal with this type of information. As a bonus, we also flatten the final result and place it into a 2D drawing.

CATIA V5 - How to import IGS surfaces into V5 then Thicken

2011-02-11T11:09:00.000-05:00

This is demo that shows how you can turn IGES surfaces into something usable. The idea is you join all the surfaces together and then copy them to a new part file so that you can thicken the model.

CATIA V5 - How to make equally spaced planes in one shot

2011-01-18T14:17:00.002-05:00

Creating planes can be very time consuming and a labourous task. In this video we show how to create 12 planes (or more) quickly for the purpose of sectioning thru the model.

CATIA V5 - How to create a Bent Tube

2010-11-22T11:17:00.000-05:00

This is quick demo that shows how to create a 3D sketch and use it for various purposes. In this case you don't need any fancy functions. Just simple and straight forward tools available to any CATIA user.