Data Management

with CATIA V5

Author Presenter
Patrick Coulehan Ajay Chavali
Solution Architect Consulting Services Manager

Fort Worth, November 11, 2005

 Agenda
§ What is PDM & Why should I care?
§ CATIA V5 – Life without a PDM
§ Do I really need PDM ?
§ What do all the acronyms mean?
§ What if my IT department says we already have a
“standard” solution for data management ?
§ What are the commonalities and differences
between ENOVIA & SmarTeam

§ A Few Recommendations…
§ Q&A

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 What Is PDM?
§ Product Data Management is a way of gaining
control of the data that is generated throughout
the product development cycle.
§ Some of the basic functions of PDM are:
§ Vaulting – Storing of files in a secure location
§ Revisioning – Tracking changes
§ Data Sharing – Giving others controlled access to data
§ Attribute Management – Managing “MetaData” like why
a file exists and what it is used for.
§ Link Management – Managing relationships between
files.
§ Workflow – Managing processes and their related data
§ BOM – Managing Bills of Materials

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Why Should I Care?
§ Many resources “touch” data – both internal to your
organization and external users - customers & suppliers.
§ Non-traditional users (Managers, Purchasing, Document
Control etc.,) need to access engineering data.
§ Without revision control and proper authority your files
could be changed without your knowledge.
§ Costly errors occur when everybody in the organization
is not working to the most current data
§ You don’t want to waste time recreating something
someone else already did.
§ File management in V5 can be quite challenging without
a PDM

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

CATIA V5 File
Management
Complexities

Filetypes and Links

 CATIA V5 Data and Filetypes

§ V5 data is stored in different types of files

§ .CATPart – Geometry (solids, surfaces, wireframe)
§ .CATProduct – Assembly structure, positioning, part
attributes, & application data (ex. Scenes, kinematics,
DMU, 3D GD&T)
§ .CATDrawing – Drawing views of parts and or
assemblies with related manufacturing information.
§ .CATProcess – Manufacturing processes & resources,
toolpath definitions.
§ .CATAnaylsis – Part Mesh definitions and Simulations

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 V5 for PLM Necessitates Links
§ Assembly links, document links & feature based
links allow for associativity, data reuse, and
maximum flexibility.
§ Products are linked to Processes & Resources
§ If you aren’t creating links you probably aren’t
fully taking advantage of CATIA V5.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Links, Links and More Links
§ Instance Links: A part or subassembly can be
used in multiple assemblies.
§ Design in Context: A part (or assembly) morphs
to fit the context where it will be used.
§ External References: A feature in one model can
be used to drive another model.
§ Cut/Copy/Paste: Multiple variations of the same
model can be created in an associative manner
(e.g. – “as cast”, “as machined”, “as fabricated”,
“as installed”).
§ Document Links: Processes and templates
developed for one model can be reused on others
by re-pointing links.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Links are Uni-Directional
§ A drawing knows what 3D
files it is generated from, but Dwg001-1
Prt011
the 3D files don’t know Assy001
Prt012
anything about the drawings.
Prt013

§ An assembly knows what

parts it is composed of, but
the parts don’t know what
assemblies they are used in.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

CATIA V5 – Life
without a PDM
 No PDM - In a FLAT file world
§ Without PDM you configure how CATIA
searches for linked files
§ Directory paths are saved with the link
§ When V5 can’t find a file it looks elsewhere
§ Broken links are very likely
§ Repair Broken Links with “File -> Desk” or
“Edit -> Links”
§ You might be having to do this quite a bit
§ When saving data be careful which function
you use
§ Save Management is one way to have
control over how and where every file in a
V5 session is saved.
§ Be careful moving linked files in the OS –
links will NOT be re-pointed. An Assembly
may still point to components in the original
location.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 No PDM - In a FLAT file world
§ ‘File -> Send To’ - Use for Data
Exchange
§ Be Mindful of the UUID’s
§ A UUID is a Universal Unique Identifier
assigned to each CATIA file based on
creation date/time etc.,
§ Many links have UUID information
embedded in them. (e.g drawing view links)
§ UUID’s keep V5 from losing context, but
improper use of UUID’s can create issues.
§ Use “New From” When Using
Templates
§ The “New From” function assigns new
UUID’s to your files.
§ Use the CATDUA Utility to Clean
Invalid Links

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

CATIA V5 – Life with a
PDM

Filetypes and Links

 Do I Really Need a PDM?
§ Does every user work on his/her own projects ?
§ Are all design data users within easy reach of
each other ?
§ Can all users be trusted to be diligent and follow
good file management practices ?
§ Are you satisfied with workarounds and utilities
to help fix your data ?

If YES you may not need a PDM

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Do I Really Need PDM?
§ Do you have engineers from different disciplines
working on common products ?
§ Do you reuse the same parts in multiple assemblies?
§ Do you need to document part changes and manage
design pedigree ?
§ Do you have data users that are not co-located ?
§ Do you have downstream PLM processes that use
design data files (e.g Purchasing, Manufacturing)?

If YES you will need a PDM

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

PDM – Some
Background
 What are all these TLAs* ?

§ PLM – Product Lifecycle Management – control of

the product development process
§ VPD – Virtual Product Development – design &
simulation of a product in a virtual fashion (using a
computer)
§ ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning –work orders
and inventories
§ SCM – Supply Chain Management – managing the
extended enterprise

*Three Letter Acronyms

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 VPD Transactional
Systems

Prototype Sourcing
Order
Testing
Processing &
Manufacturing Control
Planning
Simulation

Sales &
Product Data Distribution

Product
Definition
PLM Management
ERP
Plant
Maintenance
Product (release to
Concept Support & manufacturing)
Development Service
Inventory
Production
Management
Planning

Knowledge
Systems Xxx
Extended
Xxx xx

Systems
SCM
xxxx

xxx

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

Data Management –
Choices, Choices,
Choices….
 Some Common Quotes..
§ ‘Corporate IT says we have a document
control system that can manage files. Why do
we need SmarTeam or Enovia ?’
§ ‘Our shop floor system can store hyperlinks to
documents. Can’t we just use that to view
CATIA files ?’
§ ‘The IT department won’t let us look at
SmarTeam because SAP is our ERP system. It
has an integration to CATIA.’

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Document Control Systems
§ Document management systems can
perform some PDM-like functions.
§ Document control systems can typically handle file
vaulting and revision tracking.
§ They don’t typically have CAD integrations, so file
management is done outside of CATIA.
§ These systems don’t understand the links in CATIA.
Sometimes they can see the link, but they don’t know its
context.
§ When you revise a file they may not understand the
downstream impact. “The
Vault”

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 ERP Systems

§ ERP & Manufacturing systems can

sometimes manage files as well
§ ERP systems are very complex and handle many
tasks. They do a good job of production planning
and order processing.
§ They sometimes overlap between engineering and
the shop floor, but typically do not fully
understand the design environment.
§ They don’t have enough focus on CAD data
management to do a good job of it.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 3rd Party PDM Solutions
§ Other PLM vendors offer their own PDM
systems – some handle CATIA data.
§ These solutions understand the data
generated by CAx applications.
§ They put effort into building integrations with
the most common CAD applications.
§ They know parts, assemblies, and drawings.
§ They may not understand every aspect of
CATIA data (e.g all the types of application
data)
§ They may have problems keeping up with
CATIA release levels.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

PDM – SmarTeam and
Enovia LCA

Commonalities and Differences

 IBM / DS PDM Solutions
§ IBM / DS offer two solutions for managing CATIA V5
data
§ ENOVIA LCA
§ SMARTEAM
§ Both these product families understand CATIA data
better than other applications
§ Each product family has offerings that address the
needs of a certain class of PLM organization

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 What is Common Between ENOVIA and
SMARTEAM?

§ Vaulting
§ Search Capabilities
§ Lifecycle Management
§ CheckIn, CheckOut
§ Revisioning
§ Assembly Management
§ Links Management
§ Bills Of Materials
§ Workflows
§ Viewing
§ Customizations
§ Integrations with other systems

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Some ENOVIA Terms Defined

§ DMU – Digital Mockup – viewing, interference

checking, ergonomics, kinematics, etc.
§ 3DCOM – Web based Enterprise Collaboration –
Web viewing tools and portals.
§ VPM – Virtual Product Model – PDM that manages
complex product structures and relationships.
§ LCA – Lifecycle Applications – Workflows such
as release procedures and ECR’s.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 ENOVIA - Complex Product Structures
§ Very large assemblies can be defined.
Users can work on portions of the total
assembly.
§ Different configurations of the same
product can be defined (e.g different trim
levels of the same car).
§ DMU tools are integrated with the PDM.
§ Queries can be defined by zones (e.g all
the parts occupying a certain space).
§ Application data such as kinematics can be
exposed in the database.
§ Users can perform an impact analysis to
see how a change affects other parts and
assemblies.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 SmarTeam – CAx Document Management
§ SmarTeam is designed to manage multiple
CAD format documents.
§ It stores less V5 assembly level information
than Enovia.
§ SmarTeam understands V5 links at the file
level rather than at the feature level.
§ SmarTeam has integrations to many different
CAD systems (e.g., Solidworks, Inventor,
Pro/Engineer)
§ SmarTeam has integrations to Microsoft Office
Applications.
§ SmarTeam is relatively simpler to implement.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

Smarteam vs. Other Document Management Systems?

§ SmarTeam was designed from the ground up to support

Multi-CAD.
§ SmarTeam understands CATIA data better than any other
Document Manager except Enovia.
§ It is an expandable solution
§ Can start small with primarily data vaulting
§ Subsequently add Workflow, BOM, Web, MultiSite, Project
Management & Community Workspace as needed.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 Summary

Recommendations and Q&A

 What is the function of the PDM ?

§ The PDM system is used to store your CATIA, Other CAD and
related documents.
§ Attributes are saved with documents to make search easy.
§ Lifecycle operations like Check-in, Check-out, and release are
performed and tracked.
§ Workflows are used to document and enforce standard processes
like ECR’s.
§ Thick & thin client software with viewers is used to give non-core
users visibility to data and processes.
§ BOM’s are built and managed in the database by the PDM.
§ BOM’s and released files can be synced with other corporate
systems like ERP.
§ Data is easily shared with customers and suppliers.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

 A Few Recommendations…
§ Define standards for file management early in
your V5 implementation - even if you don’t have
PDM yet.
§ Implement PDM in a phased approach for the
least impact on production and the fastest RoI.
§ Don’t let legacy data derail your PDM
implementation. You can import legacy data at a
later phase as necessary.
§ Make sure you have commitment from
management and resources available from both
IT and Engineering.

November 11 2005 Fort Worth, TX

Thank you…
Questions?