As an introduction, the module CATIA Generative Shape Design is used very frequently by CATIA engineers, I personally use this module in very work day.
If you want know how to use this module, you should try to use this module to create simple parts at first, like a cylinder, cube or other else simple geometrical form. To open the module CATIA Generative Shape Design you should press: Start -> Shape -> Generative Shape Design. After that type the name of part and I recommend ticking the box Create a geometrical set. This Geometrical set will store all lines, curves, points and other construction elements in one. To be more organized you can create more than one Geometrical set using Insert -> New geometrical set.
In the last part of this article I will show you how to create a simple part using this module.
How to create a Cylinder Using CATIA Generative Shape Design module
- First you should create a new Sketch and draw a circle.
- Exit from the Sketch and use command Fill from Surfaces to `Fill` the surface. Select the previous Circle and click OK. Now you have the bottom base of the cylinder. In step 3 I will create the lateral body.
- To create the lateral body you should use the command Extrude. To do that, select the base circle created on the Step 1.
- Now, I must close the cylinder. To do that select the circle profile resulted from step 3.
- Now we have a cylinder, but is designed using simple features (circles, tubes, etc.) similar with 3D design in AutoCAD if you ever use this software until now. To make these three features (first planar circle, 2nd cylinder and last circle) I use the command Join.
To be an experimented user of module Generative Shape Design, you must work many hours creating, modifying and using parts in this module. I recommend you to use a book or YouTube tutorials to learn what can do this module. Is important at first to know all commands and what they can do. If you know all this things and can think like an engineer you will be very impressed by the complexity of the GSD module.
If you are any question, please don’t hesitate to ask me, I promised to be very quickly in answers.
Very useful and simple example….is it possible to add thickness to the created surface all at one step?
In surface mode you can’t set the thickness for a surface.
You can use translate for a surface to create “thickness” for a surface. If you want to create this “thickness” for more that one surface you can use Join function.
If you have more questions, please use this form.
Have a nice day.