Linking an Annotation to Composites

This task shows you how add an "attribute link" to the text of an annotation in the 3D Functional Tolerancing & Annotation workbench, i.e. to associate the text to a Composites Design feature, thus creating an associative link between the text and the feature.
Open any .CATPart containing plies.
The Part_01.CATPart document will be used in this scenario.

  1. Switch to the 3D Functional Tolerancing & Annotation workbench.
    Click Text with Leader and pick the part.
    The Text Editor dialog box is displayed.
    Right-click the text field and select Attribute link.

  2. Select the feature that you want to link to the annotation.
    We have selected Ply.1.

  3. Select the attribute you want to link from the list that is displayed:

    The complete list looks like this:

  4. The annotation is created with the name of the ply:

    Click OK in the Text Editor dialog box to validate it.
    In the specification tree, change the name of Ply.1 to MyPly.
    The annotation is updated automatically:
  • Depending on what you have picked, you can create links to the following Composites Design features and create annotations:
    • Zone Group Feature Name
    • Zone Feature Name
    • Zone Laminate Data
      • Materials used (Material1 Material2…)(*)
      • Ply count data in industry standard shorthand (Material1:#dir1 / #dir2 / #dir3 / #dir4, …) (*)
    • Ply Group Feature Name
    • Sequence Feature Name
    • Ply Feature Name
    • Ply Orientation
    • Ply Rosette Axis Feature Name
    • Core Sample Feature Name
    • Core Sample Results
      • Thickness
      • Number of Plies
      • List of plies pierced (PlyGroupName/SequenceName/PlyName …)(*)
  • For attributes marked with a (*), the result will be added as a single string with some blanks between each ‘pseudo line’ of information.
    Resize the annotation to get a nicer look!
    For instance, if you create a link to a Laminate ply count with the attribute equal to “GLASS:5/5/5/5 CARBON:12/12/12/16”,
    the annotation will look like this:

    or like this after you have resized it:
  • The Rosette name is not associative:
    • If you modify the name of the rosette, the annotation is not updated,
    • If you change the rosette of a ply (by selecting another one), the annotation is not updated.

You must update the annotation manually.