10 CATIA Macro Real World Examples

After read through all my blog posts and articles you still may be thinking to yourself “why should I learn macro programming for CATIA?” If you’re brand new to programming it may be difficult to visualize what processes can be automated.air foil in catia example

So what can you actually use CATIA macros for? How do they help you shave hours off your work week? I did a quick YouTube search and found the following projects that I think will give you a small idea of the power and variety of automation in CATIA.


 

  1. Drawing Customized Hole Table

Automatically make a customized table of the location coordinates for every hole in your CATPart.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=040JO3v0hZ0

 

  1. Automatic Weight Sheet Creation

This project is a good example of how to export CATIA data to Excel.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesD4bs6rBo

 

  1. Text in sketcher and 3D Text

A utility for creating texts in sketcher. It’s also able to project the sketch or develop it on a cylindrical surface.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVlv7Ip0b5I

 

  1. Rename Any CATPart Elements

This Macro can be used to rename any elements in a CATIA Part where the user enters a “Prefix”, “Number” and “Suffix”.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfgD1pw_WCo

 

  1. How to Model Gears

Using CATVBA, you can create a user form with a bunch of options, then click Draw and the macro program will model a new gear on-the-fly based on all the options you selected. Pretty cool!

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7pERp0PfvI

 

  1. Macro for Clash Report Generation

This macro generates and exports a clash report of a CATProduct assembly to an Excel spreadsheet and lets you quickly know what parts are interfering with each other.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDnbsHZdyI

 

  1. Exploded View Management in Scene

This macro export the product’s position and saves it as XML. Then you can import/export the XML, analyze and apply it to different versions of the product in a scene.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYIwGcwTpI

 

  1. Import aero foil coordinate into CATIA

Earlier we had an example of how to export data from CATIA to Excel. This project does the opposite – takes coordinates from an Excel spreadsheet and imports them in a CATPart.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP_gErfA5IQ

 

  1. Capture Navigator for FTA Data

This is a freeware application written in catvba language that displays all the captures in a part and allows you to quickly navigate through them.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTo93hwu-Jc

 

  1. Screen Capture

Change the background to white, hide the specification tree, then take a screen capture. Helpful for documentation and saves on ink.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZSTss1tVKk

 


Sometimes it helps to see the big picture and what the end goal is. I hope these examples help inspire you to take action and continue learning to automate your own processes.If you have your own or know of a cool project you would like me to add to this list, please let me know!

6 Comments

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.