Schematics Platform Modeler

Creating a Schematic Component Instance (Placement)

To create a Schematic component instance, its reference component needs to be identified. This use case illustrates how to specify that reference based on a Schematic component catalog.

In this use case, the "Blocking Valve" and the "Control Valve" component references will be used.

Special environment must be available to successfully run this macro:

• Prerequisites:

1. RADE must be installed.
2. CAASchPlatformModeler.edu must exist in CAADoc folder.

• Setup:

1. Build CAASchAppBase.m and CAASchAppUtilities.m, located in CAASchPlatformModeler.edu (RADE is required).
2. Copy generated DLLs, CAASchAppBase.dll and CAASchAppUtilities.m, respectively, to the run-time environment folder "intel_a\code\bin."
3. Copy CAASCHEDUApp.CATfct, located CAASchPlatformModeler.edu\CNext\resources\graphic, to the run-time environment folder "intel_a\resources\graphic."
4. Copy CAASchPlatformModeler.edu\CNext\code\dictionary\CAASchPlatformModeler.edu.dico to the run-time environment folder "intel_a\code\dictionary."

CAASchPlaceComponent.CATScript is located in the CAAScdSchUseCases module. Execute macro (windows only).

1. Prolog
2. Place a Schematic component instance in free space (not connected to any other object).
3. Place a Schematic component instance and connect it to instance created in previous step.

Prolog

The macro first loads two documents: CAASCH_Sample.catalog and CAASCH_RouteForPlacement2.CATProduct.

    ...
    ' ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
    ' Open the schematic document 
    Dim sCtlgFilePath
    sCtlgFilePath = CATIA.FileSystem.ConcatenatePaths(sDocPath, _
            "online\CAAScdSchUseCases\samples\CAASCH_Sample.catalog")

    Dim objSchCtlgDoc As Document
    Set objSchCtlgDoc = CATIA.Documents.Open(sCtlgFilePath)

    ' Open main schematic P&ID design document (for new component instances created here)
    Dim sFilePath
    sFilePath = CATIA.FileSystem.ConcatenatePaths(sDocPath, _
            "online\CAAScdSchUseCases\samples\CAASCH_RouteForPlacement2.CATProduct")

    Dim objSchDoc As Document
    Set objSchDoc = CATIA.Documents.Open(sFilePath)
    ...

Next, the macro acquires the schematic root object from the document. The schematic root is the top node of the object instance tree in a schematic document.

Place a Schematic component instance in free space (not connected to any other object).

The SchematicRoot interface provides the GetCompSymbolFromCatalog method to retrieve the graphical representation of a specific Schematic component reference by name. In this case, the "Blocking Valve" is chosen. Based on this graphical representation, the macro calls the GetSchObjOwner to obtain the Schematic component reference.

Method PlaceInSpace is then called to create a new instance of the "Blocking Valve" reference component in the design document. Note that the placement position and orientation are defined by a 6-words double-array (db6Array) which is an input to the method.

Place a Schematic component instance and connect it to instance created in previous step

As in previous step, the macro find the reference component from the catalog by the name of the graphical representation of the component. In this case, the name is "Control Valve"

Unlike previous step, instead of specifying a placement position, the macro obtains the SchComponent interface from the "Blocking Valve" component instance (created in previous step) and creates an Control Valve component instance by calling the PlaceOnComponentWithInfo method of the interface.

In the comment section of the following code segments, instance A refers to "Blocking Valve" instance that was created in previous step and instance B refers to "Control Valve" instance the macro is about to create.