Reference elements toolbar

Reference elements toolbar

For making a solid model, default planes XY, YX and ZX may not always be sufficient and leave a designer wanting for more planes on which he can sketch and make complex parts easily. Also, you may not be able to specify direction for extrusion easily in case you wish to choose to specify direction with lines which are not coplanar with the default planes. So, reference elements help in more than one way and help extend the flexibility that the designer has at his disposal. Also, reference elements like points aid the creation of lines, and lines aid the creation process of planes and vice-versa.

Options for creating point

Point - The several options for creating points are coordinates, on curve, on plane, on surface, circle/sphere/ellipse centre, tangent on curve and between. Depending on the option you choose, the provided fields below will change. For example, with coordinates option will provide you the option to enter value of X, Y and Z coordinates from a reference point, so for this you can choose the point from which you wish to enter coordinates or you can do so from the default point i.e. origin.

'On curve' option for point (Multiple result with Euclidean)

The option 'on curve', may lead you to believe that you cannot use a straight line for this, but you can. The 'on curve' option has three sub options to choose from - Distance on Curve, Distance along direction, and ratio of curve length.

Geodesic and Euclidean options are available for the first and last options. Geodesic means that it would search for point along the curve with depending to the distance you provide. While Euclidean would search for points on the curve by drawing an imaginary circle about the reference point you select and wherever this circle might intersect with the curve, all those points will be given as possible result. The Euclidean option may yield to multiple results depending on the kind of curve on which you are making point and the reference point location.

Line - For line creation too, we have several options - Point-Point, Point-Direction, Angle/Normal to curve, Tangent to curve, Normal to surface and Bisecting. Not only can you create a line using with any of these options, you can also choose to create points for the lines from within the command, simply using right click in the dialogue box and selecting the option 'Create point'. Such contextual options are available throughout Catia and can also be used with other commands and not only reference elements.

Line (Reference element)

Depending on the kind of solid model that you are making, some of these may come in handy. It works in favour of designer if he can actively recall all the options that he has at his disposal as it helps him plan ahead and strategize the part creation.

Plane - Planes creation can be done using several options. These options include - Offset from plane, Parallel through point, Angle/Normal to plane etc. A complete list can be found in the image. In almost all the options you need to select a reference with respect to which you wish to make plane. For example, in case of offset from plane, you need to specify the reference plane from which you wish to create an offset plane and the distance at which the plane needs to be created.

Options for creating plane

In case you have a point in space and need a plane parallel to some existing plane, passing through that point, you can use 'parallel through point' option. Other two options that get very commonly used are the 'Normal to curve' and 'Angle/Normal to plane'. All these will be discussed along with other options for creating reference elements in a video.