Tips for Setting the Display of Dimensional Constraints in V5
By Eric Hildebrand, MSC.Software Corporation

Enhancing Productivity in your CATIA V5 Design Environment

The ability to customize your settings in CATIA V5 allows for a more productive design environment.   Most CATIA users are familiar with changing units from metric to English using the “Tools + Options” command, but this article will demonstrate options for setting and displaying dimensional constraints that you may not be as familiar with.

Option One - Display Mode

First, changing the display mode for dimensional constraints allows the value of the constraint to be displayed, as well as, combinations of the constraint name and formula. The default display mode shows only the constraint value as shown in figure 1 (two length constraints and a radius constraint).

Figure 1: Default dimensional constraint display mode

To change the display mode, access “Tools + Options”, and under “General Options” select “Parameters and Measure” branch.  Select the “Symbols” tab, and under the “Display at Creation” section, you will find the constraint “Display Mode” options.

 
Figure 2: Selecting Display Mode options

By selecting the “Name+Value” option, the name of the constraint is displayed along with its value. This display can be used to quickly identify a constraint that has been given a unique name.

Selecting the option for “Name+Value+Formula” will display the complete formula definition for any constraint having the formula symbol f(x) next to its value. This display allows you to immediately see the formula definition without any additional commands or button clicks. 

The example shown in figure 3 uses the “Name+Value+Formula” display mode.  Notice the unique constraint name (Total Height) is displayed, as well as, the formula definition for Length.6.

Figure 3: “Name+Value+Formula” display mode

Option Two - Numeric Display

The numeric display of dimensional constraints can also be controlled with settings in V5. The CATIA high precision modeling capability will produce dimension accuracy to several decimal places, however it may not always be appropriate to display dimensions with such high accuracy.  We can easily set the number of decimal places to be displayed on constraints, and if needed in the case of certain dimensions, we can display the trailing zeros.

In the case where a constraint measures at a value of 0.500 in, the two trailing zeros are not displayed based on the default settings. To display these trailing zeros, again access “Tools + Options”, choose the “Parameters and Measure” branch and this time select the “Units” tab.  Click the “Display trailing zeros” box under the Dimensions display section. The precision of the dimension is now explicitly shown with trailing zeros (R 0.500) as shown in figure 4.

Figure 4: Display with trailing zeros

Changing the number of decimals displayed:

To set the number of decimal places displayed, locate the field “Decimal places for read/write numbers” just below the option box for trailing zeros. Key in the number of decimal places to display. The default value is 3 places, but in figure 5, you will note that we have keyed in 1 decimal place. 

Figure 5: Decimal places to be displayed

Figure 6: Example of single decimal display

After changing this setting, the constraints are displayed as shown in figure 6.

These are just two of several settings that can be used to make your V5 design environment more productive. To learn about more recommended settings to improve your V5 design environment, join MSC.Software V5 experts at the COE 2004 Conference & TechniFair in Miami during the training session entitled “Best Practices for Setting V5 Options.” 

For more information on MSC.Software's Training and Support, visit http://www.mscsoftware.com/support/?Q=135.