CATIA V5: Sketcher Boolean Operations

March 8, 2020 Amy Rath

Boolean Operations are now available in the sketcher workbench starting with release CATIA V5-V6 2018. These Boolean operations work very similar to the ones used in the Part Design workbench for when a designer has multiple bodies. The Boolean operations in the sketcher workbench are useful for combining multiple profile shapes. The options are as follows:

Figure 1-1




Figure 1-1

 

How to use Boolean Options

A designer will need to access the sketcher workbench and draw out two different profile shapes like the one in Figure 1-2.
Figure 1-2









Figure 1-2

The designer will need to highlight one complete profile shape as shown in Figure 1-3.
Figure 1-3









Figure 1-3
 

Right click on the highlighted shape as shown in Figure 1-4. At the bottom of the contextual menu, the Boolean operations should be available. First, we will choose the Add option. Figure 1-5 shows what we are left with.

   
FIgure 1-4   
Figure 1-4 

 

Figure 1-5
Figure 1-5                                                                                                

CATIA added the two shapes together, trimming off the total intersection area. Leaving us with one profile shape. This has eliminated the need to trim our profile.
 

Next we will look at the Subtract option using the same sketch. Select one of the profile shapes and right click. This time we select subtract as shown in Figure 1-6. Figure 1-7 shows what we are left with.
Figure 1-6   
Figure 1-6

 

Figure 1-7
Figure 1-7                                                                                                                    
 

CATIA subtracted the highlighted shape, removing the intersected portion from the non-highlighted shape. Eliminating the need to have to trim the profile shapes together.

Next we will look at the Intersect option. Select one of the profile shapes and right click. This time we select Intersect as shown in Figure 1-8. Figure 1-9 shows what we are left with.

Figure 1-8   
Figure 1-8     

Figure 1-9
Figure 1-9
 

About the Author

Amy Rath

Technical Training Engineer<br><br>As a resident instructor at a large automotive OEM, Amy instructs CATIA classes and develops customer-specific course material that includes training videos and interactive training techniques. Amy’s areas of expertise include CATIA V5 Human Modeling, Functional Tolerancing and Annotation, VPM Navigator and Generative Drafting to name a few. Amy is a Dassault Systèmes Certified instructor for CATIA V5 Part and Assembly at the Expert level.

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