CATIA V5 Part Design: Draft Tool

In this post, we’re going to explore the Draft tool, a nifty feature that lets you add draft angles to your designs, a critical component in parts intended for mold manufacturing. Once you have your part created as a solid body, you can apply draft using the CATIA tool.

Step 1:

Switch to the ‘Part Design’ workbench. Navigate to the ‘Draft’ tool located under the ‘Dress-Up Features’ drop-down menu. 

Step 2:

A dialog box will appear. Here, select the ‘Neutral Element’. This will be the plane or face from which the draft will be measured. Let’s choose one of the faces of our rectangular prism.

Step 3:

Next, it’s time to select the ‘Faces to Draft’. These are the faces to which the draft will be applied. In our case, we’ll select the two faces adjacent to the neutral element.

Step 4:

Now enter the draft angle value. This is the angle between the drafted face and the neutral element. For this tutorial, let’s enter a draft angle of 10 degrees. Then, hit the ‘OK’ button.

Just like that, you’ve successfully used the Draft tool! You’ll notice that our rectangular prism now has a taper or ‘draft’ on the two faces. The Draft tool is invaluable when designing parts for mold manufacturing, as the draft makes it easier to remove the part from the mold. Remember, practice makes perfect - don’t shy away from experimenting with different draft angled and shapes.

I hope you found this tutorial useful and are eager to try out the tool in your projects. If you have any questions or would like to explore more CATIA V5 features, feel free to reach out. Happy designing!

About the Author

Technical Training Engineer<br><br>Joshua is a resident instructor for a large automotive OEM, working out of their Advanced Development Center. He implements customer specific training and brings eight years of industry experience to his classes. Joshua’s areas of expertise include Advanced Part and Generative Shape Design, VPM Navigator and Generative Drafting.

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