FEM Utilities for CATIA

General

• Support of journaling
• Access all capabilities via VB Scripting
• Full integration with KnowledgeWare
  

FEA gateways

• Supported formats are:

- NASTRAN Bulk
- ANSYS Prep7

• Capabilities:

- import and export of linear structural FE data
- support of GPS local beam and shell properties
- support of assembly of analysis documents
- support of FEA user numbering if present in the model
- support of multiple load cases and solvers
- support of data mapping

• Limitations:

- no post-processing support
- no composite or thermal analysis support

Manual meshing

• Full support of spec – update paradigm:

- “Manual Mesh Part” feature used to group manual operations
- each manual meshing operation is captured in a feature
- advanced nodes and elements selection capabilities enable stability of selection during the updates

• Meshing operations on nodes:

- creation by coordinates, by selection of an existing node or by transformation of existing nodes
- deletion of nodes
- modification of position by specifying new coordinates or by applying a transformation
- condensation on destination nodes

• Meshing operations on elements:
  
  - creation by selection of nodes, by extrusion (nodes, edges and faces) or by transformation of existing elements
  - deletion of elements
  - modification of the normal of surfacic elements, split of quadrangles and hexahedrons

• Limitations: no support of assembly of analysis

Semi-automatic meshing

• Three families of capabilities:

- mesh part operators used to modify the result of a mesh part
- meshing by transformation of an existing mesh (including symmetry)
- meshing by extrusion of an existing mesh

• Very flexible input specifications:

- input mesh selection by mesh part, group, BRep or mechanical feature
- implicit geometry characteristics can be used (e.g. the axis of a cylindrical face)

• Supported transformations are translation, rotation, offset, along a curve and projection

Numbering of FEA data

• Through this capability the user is able to control the numbering used by the FEA interfaces when exporting data.
• Limitations:
  - no support for topological numbering
  - no support of Undo / Redo (will be lifted in the next release)

Logical operations on groups

To perform logical operations on groups of nodes or elements: input data can be any feature capable of selecting nodes or elements, mesh parts, BReps and mechanical features.

Requirements

CATIA V5 with one of:

• ME2 (Mechanical Engineering 2) Configuration
• MD2 (Mechanical Design 2) Configuration + GPS (Generative Part Structure Analysis) Product
• HD2 (Hybrid Design 2) Configuration + GPS (Generative Part Structure Analysis) Product

DPS products useful additions:

• CATUNV5 to have a Universal file format gateway
• HexaMesh Tools to have a more advanced meshing environment including the Kubrix hexahedron mesher

CATIA V5 useful additions:

• EST (ELFINI Structural Analysis - for multiple load cases)
• FMD (Advanced meshing for solids)
• FMS (Advanced meshing for shells)
• GAS (Assembly structural analysis)

CATIA V5 releases supported: R16, R17

Minimum hardware and software requirements

• 2MB disk space for installation
• 500 MB minimum memory
• 1GB recommended memory
• Operating systems: Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows x64 Edition