This use case shows how to create a mesh part Extrude along a spine.
This macro opens an Analysis document. Extrude along a spine mesh part can generate a 2D mesh from 1D mesh and 3D mesh from 2D mesh. In this macro 3D mesh from 2D surface mesh is created. Global specifications associated with the mesh part are set.
CAAAniMeshExtrudeSpine is launched in CATIA [1]. No open document is needed.
CAAAniMeshExtrudeSpine.catvbs is located in the CAAScdAniUseCases module. Execute macro (Windows only).
CAAAniMeshExtrudeSpine includes the following steps:
- Prolog
- Extracting the List of Mesh Parts and Publications
- Creating Mesh part and Assigning Values to its Attributes
- Epilog
Prolog
... '-----------------------------------------------------------
'Optional: allows to find the sample wherever it's installed
sDocPath=CATIA.SystemService.Environ("CATDocView")
If (Not CATIA.FileSystem.FolderExists(sDocPath)) Then
Err.Raise 9999,,"No Doc Path Defined"
End If
'-----------------------------------------------------------
'Open the Analysis document
sFilePath = CATIA.FileSystem.ConcatenatePaths(sDocPath, "online\CAAScdAniUseCases\samples\Surface.CATAnalysis")
Set oAnalysisDocument = CATIA.Documents.Open(sFilePath)
... |
Open the Analysis document. The Analysis document is retrieved in the
documentation installation path, this path has already been stored in the
sDocPath variable. In the collection of documents, two documents
can be retrieved; the Analysis document and the Part document.
Extracting the List of Mesh Parts and Publications
... 'Retrieve the analysis Manager Set oAnalysisManagar = oAnalysisDocument.Analysis Set oAnalysisSet = oAnalysisManagar.AnalysisSets 'Retrieve the part document and product Set oAnalysisLinkedDocuments = oAnalysisManagar.LinkedDocuments Set partDocument = oAnalysisLinkedDocuments.Item(1) Set product = partDocument.Product
'Retrieved the published line that is the
'spine along which mesh will be extruded
Set publications = product.Publications
Set pubSpine = publications.Item("Spine")
'Retrieve the analysis model
Set oAnalysisModels = oAnalysisManagar.AnalysisModels
Set oAnalysisModel = oAnalysisModels.Item(1)
'Retrieve the mesh manager and list of mesh parts
Set oAnalysisMeshManager = oAnalysisModel.MeshManager
Set oAnalysisMeshParts = oAnalysisMeshManager.AnalysisMeshParts
Set surfMesh = oAnalysisMeshParts.Item("Surface Mesh.1")
'Create the reference of the surface mesh
Set reference = oAnalysisManagar.CreateReferenceFromObject(surfMesh)
...
|
According to the general Analysis Document structure, this macro uses some standard procedures to navigate or retrieve the required objects. First, from the Document, we find the Analysis Manager Object, the Analysis Models and the Mesh Manager Objects. The extraction of pre-defined geometric elements is done with the help of Reference interface. This is equivalent to the selection of B-Rep elements inside the interactive application. In this macro reference is created from the surface mesh part.
Creating the Mesh Part and Assigning Values to its Attributes.
...
'Add the extrude with translation mesh part to the list of mesh parts
Set extrudeMesh = oAnalysisMeshParts.Add("MSHPartExtrSpine")
'Assign the surface mesh part as support
extrudeMesh.AddSupportFromReference NOTHING, reference
'Set the global specifications
extrudeMesh.SetGlobalSpecification "Condensation", 0
extrudeMesh.SetGlobalSpecification "Tolerance", "1.0 mm"
extrudeMesh.SetGlobalSpecification "Length", "10.0 mm"
extrudeMesh.SetGlobalSpecification "Lentgh1", "100.0 mm"
'Set the specification; spine along which mesh will be extruded
extrudeMesh.SetSpecificationFromPublication "Direction", product, pubSpine, 0
'Retrieve the basic components and sub components
Set basicComps = extrudeMesh.BasicComponents
Set subBasicComps = basicComps.Item(1).BasicComponents
'Retrieve each attribute and set its value
Set subBasicComp1 = subBasicComps.Item("Type")
subBasicComp1.SetValue "", 0, 0, 0, "Arithmetic"
Set subBasicComp2 = subBasicComps.Item("NbNodes")
subBasicComp2.SetValue "", 0, 0, 0, 20
Set subBasicComp3 = subBasicComps.Item("Symmetric")
subBasicComp3.SetValue "", 0, 0, 0, "TRUE"
Set subBasicComp4 = subBasicComps.Item("Ratio")
subBasicComp4.SetValue "", 0, 0, 0, 10
'Update the mesh
extrudeMesh.Update
...
|
The extruded mesh can be manipulated with the parameters like distribution type ( Uniform, Arithmetic, Geometric) number of layers, symmetry and ratio. To set these parameters we retrieve the list of basic components (BCs) from the mesh. From the first element of the list we retrieve one more list of the BCs. Then we retrieve each of the BCs by its name and set the values.
Epilog
... End Sub ... |
To run the macro interactively CATDocView environment variable must be defined.
