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

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 Files\Dassault Systemes\B25\win_b64\code\bin\ and the name of the file is V5Automation.chm

For CATIA V6 (V6R2013x) the file is on the path

c:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B214\win_b64\code\bin\ and the name of the file is DSYAutomation.chm

For 3DEXPERIENCE 2017x (cloud version) the path is

c:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B419\win_b64\code\bin\ and same name like for CATIA V6

DSYAutomation.chm

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). .

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

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.

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.

2017

Running the macro in CATIA V5R25 (directly from SCITE as I preferred), we will get the frame and the

title block.

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

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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.

2017

I will run the Action Pad button and I will customize a little bit, placing the Macros and Fit All In buttons inside .

2017

Running the macro Drawing_Titleblock_PlyBook.CATScript will give us the frame and the title block in 3DEx

Drafting App

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

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.

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

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.

2017

Information about differences brtween V5 and V6 code can be found in the documentation. A simple example

can be seen here.

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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.

2017

Thank you!