The Generative Sheetmetal Design workbench is an excellent tool to create bendable, foldable sheet metal parts. These parts can be folded and unfolded during construction of the 3D model. For 2D drawings, parts can be displayed in their folded state or easily displayed in their flattened view.
By default, however, the bend radius isn’t displayed in the flattened view on the 2D drawing.
To show these, we’ll need to take advantage of a custom Generative View Style. A Generative View Style allows the looks of a drawing view to be defined by an XML file. These preset looks can then be selected when creating a drawing view.
Text Editing
The XML files that define the default views are located in the following sub-folder of the CATIA install directory: /resources/standard/generativeparameters.
We’ll be modifying DefaultGenerativeStyle.xml. To preserve the original, it’s a good idea to work on a copy of the file. I’ve named this one DefaultGenerativeStyle_BendRadius.xml.
Open DefaultGenerativeStyle.xml in your text editor of choice. Personally, I’m a fan of the free NotePad++, but you can probably get by with the standard Notepad that’s included with Windows.
Search for the following line in the XML document:
<std:node name="Radius">
Change the nearby “std:enumval” value to “Yes” so that the block of code looks like this:
<std:node name="Radius">
<std:node name="Visible">
<std:enumval name="YesNo">Yes</std:enumval>
</std:node>
Save the document.
On the CATIA side
Now that the XML document is edited, fire up CATIA. Before creating the drawing, there’s one last option to be checked. Head to Tools > Options > Mechanical Design > Drafting > Administration and make sure that “Prevent Generative Style Usage” is deselected.
Open the 3D model and create a new drawing as usual.
Click Unfolded View ( ) and select a face from the 3D model. Before clicking the background of the drawing to complete the drawing view, a Generative View box will pop up. Select the DefaultGenerativeStyle_BendRadius view style.
Complete the drawing view and the bend radii will be added automatically.
Bend Angles
If you’d like to display the bend angles in addition to the bend radii, they can be added in a very similar manner. To add bend angles, look for the following line and make sure that it is set to a “Yes” value as well.
<std:node name="Angle">
More Yet
Browsing the XML file, there are a few other tweaks that you can make to the unfolded views. The colors of the bend tangent lines can be changed, and other items can be hidden or disabled using the same visibility tag that we’re using here.
For more information on creating sheet metal parts, check out the CATIA Sheet Metal Design class. Or, if you’re more inclined to work with the drawing side of things, CATIA Generative Drafting will cover creating and working with the various drawing views, as well as the rest of the Drafting workbench.
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