Distributive Systems

Disconnecting Parts

This use case is intended to shows how to check connection of two parts using a macro.

This macro opens the document CAAPspEduIn.CATProduct. From the root object of this document, the macro obtains a handle to two objects and checks if they are connected . Furthermore, if the parts are connected they are disconnected.

CAAPspDisconnectParts is launched in CATIA [1]. No open document is needed.

CAAPspDisconnectParts.CATScript is located in the CAAScdPspUseCases module. Execute macro (windows only).

CAAPspDisconnectParts includes the following steps:

1. Prolog
2. Get a List of physical (3D) Piping Objects
3. Get PspConnectable Objects Corresponding to Two Parts
4. Check if Two Parts Are Connected
5. Disconnect Two Connected Parts

Prolog

The macro first loads CAAPspEduIn.CATProduct.

Note: To open a different document, modify the variable sDocPath to point to the directory and sDocFullPath to point to full path name of the document.

    ...
    ' ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
    ' Open the Distributive system document 
    Dim objPspDoc As Document

    sDocFullPath = CATIA.FileSystem.ConcatenatePaths(sDocPath, _    
       "\online\CAAScdPspUseCases\samples\CAAPspEduIn.CATProduct" )

    Set objPspDoc = CATIA.Documents.Open(sDocFullPath)    ...

Next, the macro acquires the PspWorkbench object from the document using the top node (objPrdRoot) of the object tree.

    ...
    ' ---------------
    ' Find the top node of the Distributive System object tree - .  
    
    If ( Not ( objPspDoc Is Nothing ) ) Then
      'Set objPrdRoot = objPspDoc.Product 
      Set objPrdRoot = CATIA.ActiveDocument.Product
      If ( Not ( objPrdRoot Is Nothing ) ) Then
        Set objPspWorkbench = objPrdRoot.GetTechnologicalObject ("PspWorkbench")
      End If
    End If
    ...

Then it uses PspWorkbench get application corresponding to "Piping Design" and initialize it.

    ...
    If ( Not ( objPspWorkbench Is Nothing ) ) Then
      Set objPspApplication = objPspWorkbench.GetApplication(catPspIDLCATPiping)

      If ( Not( objPspApplication Is Nothing )  ) Then        
        strMessage_g = strMessage_g & "Success in getthing objPspApplication" & vbCr      
        objPspApplication.Initialization()             
      End If
    End If '--- If ( Not ( objPspWorkbench Is Nothing )...
    ...

Get a List of Physical (3D) Piping Objects

Macro then gets Get PspAppFactory object handler from the objPspApplication object and get a list of physical (3D) piping objects in the root product.

    ...
    '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    ' Get list of physical (3D) objects in the Piping domain
    '-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Dim objLPhysicals     As PspListOfObjects
    If ( Not ( objPspWorkbench Is Nothing ) And _
         Not ( objPspApplication Is Nothing ) ) Then
      Set objPspAppFactory = objPspWorkbench.GetInterface("CATIAPspAppFactory", _
                                                objPspApplication )      
      
      If ( Not ( objPspAppFactory Is Nothing ) ) Then      
        
        Set objLPhysicals = objPspAppFactory.ListPhysicals( objPrdRoot, catPspIDLCATPIP)
        
      End If
    ...

Get PspConnectable Objects Corresponding to Two Parts

It then gets PspConnectable objects corresponding to Valve whose ID is "V-117" and a gasket object whose ID is "Gasket-012" using the private Function FindPipingPartByID by passing input list of Physical objects (objLPhysicals).

    ...
    ' --------------------------------------------------------------
    ' Get PspConnectable object corresponding to  Valve with ID=V-117 
    ' and Gasket whose ID = Gasket-012    
    ' ---------------------------------------------------------------

    Dim objValveCtbl    As  PspConnectable
    Dim objGasketCtbl   As  PspConnectable
    
    If ( Not ( objLPhysicals Is Nothing ) And _
       ( objLPhysicals.Count > 0 ) ) Then      
      Set objValveCtbl  = FindPipingPartByID (objLPhysicals, "V-117")
      Set objGasketCtbl = FindPipingPartByID (objLPhysicals,"Gasket-012")

    End If
    ...

Check if Two Parts Are Connected

It then calls ListConnectables on objValveCtbl ( corresponding to V-117) to get a list of connected objects (objLCntbles) to it. Then it checks ID of all the connected objects to see if any of them match with "Gasket-012".

      ...
     Set objLClassFilter = Nothing
      objValveCtbl.ListConnectables objLClassFilter, objLCntbles, _
                           objLCntrsOnThisObj,  objLCntrsOnConnected 

      If ( Not ( objLCntbles Is Nothing ) ) Then       
        Dim objAIDCntbl            As PspID
        strMessage_g = strMessage_g & _
          "Number of Connected objects= " &  objLCntbles.Count & vbCr          

        For iIdx = 1 To objLCntbles.Count 
          Set objAIDCntbl = objLCntbles.Item (iIdx, "CATIAPspID")          
          Dim strCntdID As String
          If ( Not (objAIDCntbl Is Nothing) ) Then
            strCntdID = objAIDCntbl.GetID
            If ( strCntdID = "Gasket-012" ) Then
              iIdxOfGasket = iIdx
              Exit For          ' Exit out of the for loop
            End If             
          End If           
    ...

Disconnect Two Parts

To get corresponding connectors on the two objects, use the index of the Gasket-012 object in the list objLCntbles and obtain the corresponding PspConnector objects from List of connectors objLCntrsOnThisObj and objLCntrsOnConnected.

Connector on the Valve is obtained as objPspCntrValve while on the gasket it is objPspCntrGasket.

    ...
        Set objPspCntrValve = objLCntrsOnThisObj.Item (iIdxOfGasket, "CATIAPspConnector")          
        Set objPspCntrGasket = objLCntrsOnConnected.Item (iIdxOfGasket, "CATIAPspConnector")          
    ...

To disconnect the Valve and gasket the macros calls Disconnect on objPspCntrValve by passing in the argument objPspCntrGasket.

    ...
         objPspCntrValve.Disconnect objPspCntrGasket
    ...