CADVertex Software Solutions: A-16 . Whispering Wind . Pashan-Baner Link Rd . Pashan . Pune .

411021
www.CADVertex.com eMail: info@cadvertex.com Phone :+91 9890611694

CATIA CAA Programming

Language: CATScript / VB / Visual C# / VB.NET
Expert Program: 56 Topics, labs and projects
Master Program: 98 Topics, labs and projects

:: Begin Expert Program::

Day1: What is Customization
Lab: Creating a Keyboard Shortcut.

Day2: A Quick Tour of CATIA Customization

Learn all techniques of customizing the CATIA interface without any coding.

Day3: CATIA Specific VB

Lab: Creating a Simple Automobile Class with Methods and Properties.

Day4: The CATIA CAA

Understand the CATIA Component Application Architecture (CAA) in-depth and how to use VB’s object
browser to explore the CAA.

Day5: The Basic Connection

Lab: Invoking CATIA from VB – Learn to declare CATIA object variables and the mechanism of invoking
and accessing CATIA.

Day6: Automating CATIA with VB

Lab: Start Show Stop CATIA – Learn to control CATIA at will. Learn to invoke, hide, show CATIA, read-
write various properties of CATIA objects and quit CATIA.
Lab: Creating a Docs Ticker – Learn to build a tiny documents ticker that counts and lists open documents
in CATIA and syncs as documents close and new ones are added.

Weekend: Batch Processing Techniques

Lab: A Batch DXF Exporter – export all CATDrawing files in a specified folder to dxf format. Learn to use
the Windows standard ‘Browse for Folder’ dialog, learn to gather all files of specified extension into a VB
collection and how to selectively remove undesired files from a listbox. Learn to write log files of a batch
process with date and time stamps.

[ Week 2 ]
Day8: Detecting the Workbench
Learn to detect which document type is currently open using both defective and foolproof techniques
Day9: Open, Create, Save & Export CATIA Documents
Learn all about handling CATIA documents and various CATIA CAA constants.

Day10: File Handling using WinAPI & CATIA API

Lab: CATIA standard file dialogs with preview – Learn to invoke CATIA’s standard file open and save
dialogs in VB applications.
Lab: Windows standard file dialogs without OCX – Learn to show Windows standard file open/save dialogs
to select CATIA files without using the Microdot Common Dialog control.

Day11: Managing Sheets In Drawings

Lab: Sheet Exporter Revisited – Learn to batch export all sheets in all CATDrawing files in a specified
folder as dxf.
Lab: Developing A Sheet Estimator – Learn how to build a program that estimates paper requirements by
reading sheet info in a given set of CATDrawing files. This is a real-world scenario.

Day12: Error Checks & Entity Handling

Lab: Error Trapping a Selection Set – Learn to write robust VB code for CATIA applications. Learn how to
trap errors and also learn how to handle selection sets in CATIA.

Day13: Mastering CATIA Part Features

Lab: Traversing Features of a CATIA Model – learn to traverse thru all features of a part and access the
feature properties.
Lab: Creating a Data Archiver for CATIA – Learn to build a real-world program for archiving CATIA files.

WeekEnd2: Excel Customization

Get a thorough grounding in all Excel customization techniques using VB 6 and exploit Excel as a simple
and easy-to-use database when customizing CATIA with these three labs.

Lab: Create, Open, Save, manipulate Excel Documents.

Lab: Master Excel Sheets - Add, Count, Rename, Remove, Activate, etc.
Lab: Solving Equations Using Excel – Learn to build Excel formulas as strings in VB, plant them into an
Excel cell, have Excel evaluate them and read back the results in the VB form.

[ Week 3 ]
Day15: CATIA Products and Physical Properties
Lab: Material Estimation for Spray Painting – Learn to traverse thru all components of an CATIA Product
and manipulate them. Also learn how to extract physical properties like area, mass, volume, etc.

Day16: CATIA Formulas and Parameters

Lab: Building an in-house Product Coster – Learn about the CATIA Formulas dialog and how to use it in
depth. Also learn how to setup and access the formulas in CATIA documents to create a product coster.
This is a lite version of a paid project.

Day17: Parametric Parts

Lab: Designing a Shaft with a Keyway – Learn to parametrically control a Part. This is perhaps the most
widely used CATIA technique in design automation.

Day18: Automating CATIA From Excel

Lab: Parametric Parts from Excel – Learn to use Excel’s VBA environment to automate CATIA. Learn to
use an Excel sheet as a data input medium and also learn to create VB controls right inside an excel sheet
and execute code with the controls.
Day19: Morphing Parts
Lab: Creating a Super Shaft – Learn to intelligently build required features of a family of parts into a
model and how to manipulate them to get the desired configuration of a part. This is a lite version of a
paid project.

Day20: Harnessing CATIA Part Data

Lab: Creating a Basic Hole Coster – Learn to acquire critical feature data and differentiate between types
of features. This is a classic example of what the industry needs - develop applications that calculates cost
directly from the model.

Weekend 3: Design Optimization Using Excel’s Solver

Lab: Optimizing the Design of a Softdrink Can – Learn to use the ‘Solver’ add-in of Excel to optimize
designs. This is a lite version of a paid assignment.

[ Week 4 ]
Day22: CATIA Products
Lab: Inserting Parts Into a Product– Learn how to build a Product from scratch by assembling CATIA part
files into an empty assembly, learn to setup pointers to the inserted components, manipulate them and
move them around in the product.

Day23: Storing CATIA Data To Excel

Lab: Product Coster Using Excel – Learn and master the most widely implemented practice in the industry
today, extracting model/assembly data from CATIA and exporting to Excel. Learn to format Excel sheets
and handle range of cells with data and also columns, right from VB code.

Day24: Migrating Legacy Data

Lab: Batch DWG Importer – Ability to migrate legacy data is a critical factor when making a CAD software
purchase decision. Learn all techniques to successfully batch import CAD data from existing older formats
into CATIA.

Day25: Processing Imported Legacy Data

Lab: Handling Dimensions In Drawings – Many times migrated or imported geometry needs to be
tweaked. Learn how to setup programs that run unattended, picking up the right entities in a drawing and
manipulate them, saving the files back properly.

Day26: Handling Text In Drawings

Lab: Title Block Updation – Learn to handle and access text objects in a drawing document and how to
update text in a title block to maintain consistent font and spacing across drawings. Learn how to
meticulously design user-friendly dialogs for CATIA automation apps.

Day27: Creating Drawing Views

Lab: Automatically creating 4 standard views from parts/assemblies is a dream for every design
department. Learn not just how to achieve this but also critical aspects like spacing between views, etc.

Weekend 4: CATIA CAA Productivity Techniques

Lab: Drawing Views Updater – Learn to build a program that updates all views in all the CATDrawings in a
specified folder. This can be used before you batch export CATDrawings to other file formats like dwg, etc.
 Begin Master Program: Expert Program + following additional topics

[ Week 5 ]
Day29: Creating New CATIA Commands
Lab: Learn how to develop new commands for CATIA using CAA. Also learn to add a dialog interface to
the new commands.

Day30: Symbiosis in Customization

Lab: Creating a Spellchecker for CATIA – Learn how to automate Word and harness its spellchecking
capability to check spellings in CATIA Drawings. Learn systematically how to invite other useful VBA
enabled apps to your automation program, get work done from them and gracefully dispose them off.

Day31: Customizing the History Tree

Lab: An intelligent History Tree – Learn how to customize the information displayed in the History Tree of
CATIA.

Day32: Robotic Arm Simulation

Lab: Simulating a SprayPainting Robotic Arm – Learn to ease the process of designing, visualizing and
implementing intelligent automatic machines generally termed as Industrial Robotics using VB and CATIA.
Learn to setup robotic arms modeled as a product in CATIA and how to control the robot from VB and
read-in analysis information back from the robot.

Day33: Parametric Parts Using Excel vLookUp

Lab: Parametric Shaft Using Design Handbook – Learn to setup tables in Excel and learn to build the
vLookUp functionality of Excel and how to lookup values from a design data to govern a parametric part.

Day34: CATIA CAA and VB.NET

Lab: Configuring CATIA for .NET Programming – Learn the basics of VB.NET in the context of CATIA
automation.

Weekend 5: CATIA Connect

Lab: Start-Show-Stop CATIA using VB.NET – Learn how to setup references and build VB.NET forms and
automate CATIA from VB.NET. Once the basic differences are known, most VB programs from the other
days can be easily ported or re-written to VB.NET

[ Week 6 ]
Day36: Exporting Assembly Data to the Web
Lab: A Web based BOM Extractor & Viewer – Learn to export CATIA product data directly in the form of an
html file. Learn to setup and use the WebBrowser Control on a VB form and display the exported file on
the form. Learn to launch the assigned web browser and display the exported html file in it.

Day37: Exporting Assembly Data as XML

Lab: Learn how to gather CATIA product data, build strings and manipulate them to calculate part counts
and cost calculations. Learn about the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) which is the most popular
intermediate database language today and how to write out product data to an XML file. This is a lite
version of a paid assignment.

Day38: CATIA Products to HTML

Lab: Creating Web Catalog of Products – Learn how to write out an html file with an assembly data. Learn
to create images of the parts of an assembly and how to load the images in the html file and create
hyperlinks back to the CATIA parts all using VB code. This is a lite version of a paid project.
Day39: CATIA Data to PDF
Lab: Creating PDF Quotations from Scratch – Learn to create PDF files containing assembly data ‘without’
the use of a printer driver or ‘without’ any PDF API. Learn to write intrinsic PDF files with all required
header and footers of a PDF file along with embedded product data using pure VB code. This is a lite
version of a soon-to-be-released commercial software.

Day40: CATIA To Database Connectivity

Lab: Writing product Data to an Access Database – Learn to create an Access database, setup tables and
field how to append records with CATIA data, all using VB. Learn to write to and read from a database
which is a very important function of ‘process automation’ programs involving CATIA CAA.

Day41: Integrating Apps with CATIA

Lab: Toolbar Customization – Learn to use CATIA’s own VBA and advanced toolbar customization
techniques to call compiled VB apps from a toolbar in CATIA. Learn to create the right sized bitmaps for
the toolbars and how to setup them in the correct system paths.

Weekend 6: Product Configurator

Lab: Creating a CATIA Product Configurator - Product configurators are multifunctional, computer-aided
systems that function as an interface between sales and product design. It automatically generates
product documents, for example, bills of material, production drawings, product cost, virtual 3D models,
quotations, routings, product images, reports & catalogs, sales & approval drawings and so on. Learn to
setup part libraries, present users with a choice of parts from the library to pick and traverse thru a CATIA
product document and build the product configuration as specified by user. This is a lite version of a paid
project.

[ Week 7 ]
Day43: CATIA CAA Macro Techniques
Learn various CATIA macro techniques like auto-loading macros, macro libraries, batch macros, using the
Windows Scripting Host, etc.

Day44: CATIA Shell Integration

Lab: List components in a Product – Learn to write special programs in VB that when compiled can take
arguments at the command prompt so that the CATIA automation routine can be used in scripts.
Lab: Right-Click Integration – Learn how to setup the context (right-click) menus in Windows Shell so that
CATIA automation apps appear in the context menus when a CATIA document is right-clicked in Windows
Explorer and link back the executable to the context menu item.

Day45: Conquering the TreeView Control

Lab: Learn to setup and use VB’s imagelist and treeview controls and learn to emulate the CATIA tree on
a VB form by displaying the product components in the nodes of the TreeView on a VB form.

Day46: CATIA CAA Power Techniques

Lab: Creating a CATIA Project Template – Learn to create a VB project template for CATIA, complete with
CATIA CAA references and required basic forms and modules. Learn to setup the files in the VB
environment’s system path so that the CATIA CAA template is available when creating a new VB project.

Day 47: CATIA Game 1

Lab: A Skill Based Tiled Game – See how to setup the logic and write VB code to create a game with a
CATIA theme.

Day 48: CATIA Game 2

Lab: A Suspense On-Off Game – Learn to write another game with unknown solution with an CATIA
theme.
Other training programs from CADVertex:

CATIA CAA
Solid Edge Customization

 VBScript/VB 6.0  VB 6.0
 Visual C#  VB.Net
 VB.Net  Visual C#

NXOpen.Net
SolidWorks Customization

 VB.Net  VB 6.0
 VB.Net
 Visual C#

Knowledge Fusion
AutoCAD Customization

 VBA/VB 6.0
 VB.Net
 Visual C#
 AutoLISP/VisualLISP + DCL