Before You Begin

What's a 2D Component?

A 2D component is a re-usable set of geometry and annotations. This component is located in a sheet and can be edited like a view. This is why we call this component a detail view. The 2D component can be instantiated several times, each instance providing a component with a specific orientation, position and scale. The detail view can be either in the same drawing as the CATDrawing of the corresponding instances or in a separate CATDrawing.

What's a Component Catalog?

The catalog is a separate file which references the detail views, enabling to group the components, to classify them and to add information and attributes to these components. This allows overall management of the components. Moreover, the catalog browser can be used to choose a component and instantiate it in a drawing document.

 
 

You can synchronize external catalog components. In other words, you may update a component (or ditto) that is external to the 2D. Note that associativity is kept. For this, go to Edit->Link (menu bar) and select the Synchronize switch from the displayed dialog box.

You can prevent manipulating a 2D component (the whole 2D component). For this, go to Tools -> Options -> Mechanical Design -> Drafting -> Geometry tab and de-activate the Allow Direct Manipulation option.

 

General Concepts For Using Catalogs

Creating a 2D component in a detail sheet

You will find below a reminder on how to instantiate a component from a reference element that is internal to the document.


1: reference component     2: instantiated component

 

Saving a 2D Component in a Catalog

You will find below how to instantiate a component from a reference element that is external to the document.

 

1: local copy of reference component
2: instantiated components
3: catalog entry
4: external reference component

 

When you create a 2D component in a detail sheet, store this component into a catalog and you can perform modifications to this component on the detail sheet. There are two ways for updating the catalog file:
- you can make a Save As Catalog on the same catalog. Be careful: in this case, the catalog is re-generated not updated. In other words, any modification applied to the catalog will be lost.
- you can manually modify the catalog using the catalog editor (Base Infrastructure).

 

When you instantiate a component from a catalog, this component appears on the sheet. In addition, this component definition is locally copied but you cannot visualize this copy. In that way, the instantiated component becomes a component which references this locally copied component. As a result, if the origin component disappears, the link between the locally copied component and the origin component is broken BUT the component can still be used. If the image of the component in the catalog is modified and therefore different from the instantiated component, you can go to Edit->Links option from the menu bar and click the Synchronize switch (Links of Document dialog box).

 

The Links of Document dialog box shows all the local copies and the states of the copies links. So, synchronizing amounts to updating the local copy based on the origin component modifications. Once the local copy is synchronized, all the instantiated components referencing this local copy are simultaneously updated.

 

When you save a component in a catalog, you actually make a photo of the image of this component and also create a link which allows to find the origin component. As a result, if you modified the origin component and now try to instantiate this component from the catalog, the instantiated component will result different from what you expected.

 

You will find here two possible scenarios which will help you get what you expected:

Scenario1: if a component in a detail sheet and in a catalog are different from each others and if you update the catalog (Save As from the detail sheet), be careful: you will loose the catalog modifications.

Scenario2: suppose both the detail sheet and the catalog are similar (Save As from the detail sheet). When you instantiate the component from the catalog into the drawing, if the instantiated component is different from the component that was saved in the catalog, please go to Edit->Links command from the menu bar and click the Synchronize switch button. In fact, the origin reference component was locally copied and can only be updated using the Links of Document dialog box.

 

 

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