Differences in macros between catia v5 and catia v6 or 3dexperience
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- Macros created for CATIA V5 may not work in CATIA V6 or 3DEXPERIENCE without modifications due to differences in the automation objects, methods, and properties between the versions. - The path and filenames for macro documentation (CHM files) differ between CATIA V5, V6, and 3DEXPERIENCE installations. - Comparing macro code samples between versions shows changes needed in 3DEXPERIENCE code, even for macros provided in its installation folder. Users must check and modify macros to accommodate differences in the newer versions. - While some macros may port over between V6 and 3DEXPERIENCE with minor changes, macros will generally need to be significantly modified
Differences in macros between catia v5 and catia v6 or 3dexperience
- 1. 2017 Fernando Petre, Technical Manager, CAD/PLM Consultant E: fernando.petre@ADInnovation.ro M: +40 725 155 588 Some differences in macros between CATIA V5 and CATIA V6 or 3DEXPERIENCE
- 2. 2017 Is a well known fact that most of the users would like to do some tedious and repetitive operations in CATIA faster. One way is to use macros. Some of these can be found in CATIA installation folder. For beginning, I will show where you can find the automation documentation for few CATIA local installations. Dassault Systemes provided those macros (CATSCript, catvbs, catvba) as samples in order to show some functionalities which can be achieved thru automation. For CATIA V5 (R25 for example) the file can be found on the path c:Program FilesDassault SystemesB25win_b64codebin and the name of the file is V5Automation.chm For CATIA V6 (V6R2013x) the file is on the path c:Program FilesDassault SystemesB214win_b64codebin and the name of the file is DSYAutomation.chm For 3DEXPERIENCE 2017x (cloud version) the path is c:Program FilesDassault SystemesB419win_b64codebin and same name like for CATIA V6 DSYAutomation.chm
- 3. 2017 For those who want to start programming in CATIA V6 in 3DEXPERIENCE is good to know that macros done in previous versions of CATIA V6 it might be possible to work also in 3DEXPERIENCE (below is a screen capture from DS documentation file). .
- 4. 2017 In order to notice the differences between the number of examples in CATIA V5 and V6, I copied in other separate folders the samples provided in installation path but only CATScripts and catvbs for V5R25 (B25) and 3DEx 2017x cloud (B419). The differences between the number of provided samples can be very easy observed in this screen capture. V5R25 3DEx 2017x cloud
- 5. 2017 I will use for exemplification the macro named Drawing_Titleblock_PlyBook.CATScript . Because the macro editor is not so friendly from visual point of view, I’ve done some modifications to a popular free portable text editor named SCITE. If you choose to open in this enhanced text editor, you will loose the other advantages coming from the original CATIA VB Editor (object browser, insert object resolution…) The macro used for example is looking like here (V5 macro version). Is a long macro with over 1100 lines which will create a specific frame and a title block.
- 6. 2017 Another advantage of SCITE is that you can configure and run the macro directly from the dropdown menu or simply pushing F5 key. In CATIA VB Editor you can search the objects. This is not possible in SCITE editor.
- 7. 2017 Running the macro in CATIA V5R25 (directly from SCITE as I preferred), we will get the frame and the title block.
- 8. 2017 To compare codes from V5 with V6 (v6r2013x), I will use Compare plug-in from Notepad++ , which will show us differences. Area with differences is marked below. V5 V6
- 9. 2017 In 3DEXPERIENCE 2017x (cloud) I will do few customization in order to easy the work. First I will run from the web interface one of the preferred Favorite Apps , Drafting App. The Drafting rich app will be launched.
- 10. 2017 I will run the Action Pad button and I will customize a little bit, placing the Macros and Fit All In buttons inside .
- 11. 2017 Running the macro Drawing_Titleblock_PlyBook.CATScript will give us the frame and the title block in 3DEx Drafting App
- 12. 2017 But….to have this result running the macro, you need to modify the code, even if it was working in CATIA V6. You can see the differences between those two codes on right side, in the blue zones the code is the same for 3DEx 2017x cloud and v6r2013x along whole macro. 3DEx 2017x cloud V6
- 13. 2017 Macro was created in 3DEx by using Create button. Using Edit button you can open the new created macro and create effectively the macro eventually by pasting code from another macro inside and modifying in order to not have any errors.
- 14. 2017 Using again Notepad++ we can see differences in another macro comming from samples provided by Dassault Systemes, CATIASelection_1.CATScript. In the case of this macro, even if the macro was provided as sample in the installation folder for B419 (3DEx), the code has to be corrected (in screen capture the code is not corrected). 3DEx V5
- 15. 2017 All macros are saved in the database in V6, in a Macro library. The library can be searched and accessed like in the picture bellow.
- 16. 2017 Information about differences brtween V5 and V6 code can be found in the documentation. A simple example can be seen here.
- 17. 2017 Another example can be found here. As a conclusion, a macro which will run very well in V5 will not run as it was written in V6. There are just few cases when you will be able to do it. Users must check their code to see if this will accomplish the new automation objects, methods, and properties available in 3DEXPERIENCE.
- 18. 2017 Thank you!