Scanning a Part and Defining Current Objects

This task shows how to scan a part and define a current object without taking the complete part into account. It is useful for the analysis of the better understanding of the complex design.
Open the Scan.CATPart document.

 

 

  1. Select Tools> In Work Object> Scan or Define In Work Object... from the menu bar. The Scan toolbar appears enabling you to update the part feature by feature.
    You need to click the buttons allowing you to move from one current feature to the other.

  2. Select the Update mode as the way you want to scan the features.


    This mode creates a list of all the features and orders them in the update order (parents before children). The Current Feature can be moved along this list. Setting the Current Feature is not the same as defining the In Work Object. Thus, all the features are taken into account during the creation of the list and scanned in the order of the update (which is not necessarily the order of the specification tree).

  3. Click Display Graph .
    The Scan Graph dialog box appears and displays all the features belonging to Scan part.


    The current position in the scan graph does not correspond to the in work object: the underlined object in the graph is not necessarily the one underlined in the specification tree.

  • Datum features appear first; geometrical sets and ordered geometrical sets do not appear in the Scan Graph.

  • Deactivated features appear in the Scan Graph. 

 

  1. Select a feature in the Scan Graph or in the specification tree. The application highlights the feature in question in the specification tree as well as in the geometry area and make it current.
    In our example, we chose Solid Functional Set.1.

  • A preview of the current object's parents is available:

    • If the parents are visible: the thickness of lines and points is increased and the surfaces' edges are in dotted lines; faces and edges are highlighted.

    • If the parents are not visible: the surfaces appear as transparent; lines and points are in yellow dotted lines.

  • If a parent of the in work object is in no show, it is temporarily shown when its child is the in work object.
 

  1. Click Previous to move to the previous feature, that is Extrude.4.

  2. Click First to move to the first feature, that is Point.1.

In case there are several datum features, the application highlights the last one as there are all scanned at the same time.
 

  1. Click Next  to move to the next feature, that is Point.2.

Scanning Next and Previous skip datum and deactivated features.
 

  1. Click Last  to move to the last feature, that is Solid Functional Set.1.

Moving to the next or last feature enables to update elements that are not up-to-date.
 

  1. Click First to Update  to move to the first element to be updated and consequently update it.
    If both geometry and part are up-to-date, an information window appears and confirms this.

  2. Click this icon again to find the next element to be updated and so on until a window appears to inform you that both geometry and part are up-to-date.

  3. Click Play Update to replay the update of the geometry.
    A progression bar is displayed, while the scenario is being replayed.
    In case of update errors, the replay stops at the first error. The Update Error dialog box opens.

  4. Click Exit to exit the command.
    In the geometry area and the specification tree, the application highlights the current object.
    If the object was in no show, it is put in show as long as it stays current.
At each step of the scan operation, you can see both the edition and the highlight views of the "In Work" feature.
  • For a shape feature like Shellable Prism, the Scan view shows:
    • Its preview shape
    • The faces that it creates
                   
    Highlight View Edition View Scan View
  • For the features that have their own protected shape (Protected, Cutout, Hole), the Scan view shows:
    • The preview shape
    • The faces that it creates
    • The protected volume

    Scan View
  • For a Cut Feature, the Scan view shows an highlight of the cut surface.

    Scan View
 

More about Scanning a Part

Keep in mind the following information when scanning a part:

  • Defining a feature as current without scanning the whole part is possible using the Define in Work Object contextual command on the desired feature. This feature is put in show if needed, and keeps its status even if another feature is defined as the in work object.

  • When clicking a sub-element in the 3D geometry, it is in fact the feature used to generate this sub-element which is selected as the in work object. Likewise, this feature is edited when double-clicking a sub-element.

  • When a collapsed contextual element is highlighted, it is the node of its set that is highlighted in the Scan Graph.

  • To display 3D parameters attached to Part Design features, check the Parameters of features and constraints option in the Tools > Options > Infrastructure > Part Infrastructure > Display.

  • The part is put in No Show, so is its 3D display, in order to build a new 3D display that contains the same features but in a different order. As a consequence, if a geometrical set or an ordered geometrical set is in no show, it is ignored and its elements are considered as being in show. To put the contents of this geometrical set or ordered geometrical set in no show, use the Geometrical_Set.x object > Hide components contextual command. Refer to the Hiding/Showing Geometrical Sets or Ordered Geometrical Sets and Their Contents chapter for further information.

  • Sketcher elements are not taken into account by Scan or Define In Work Object... command.

  • The Update mode is not available for Power Copies.

  • The Structure mode allows you to move the In Work Object along the part structure. It is not possible to define In Work Object on Functional Features as well as on Geometrical Set contents. Therefore, scanning Functional Features in Structure mode is not possible.

  • The scan capability is available only on features created on level R16 and above (For functional features created inside a solid functional set).