Domaine Catia v5

Copyright 2003 by IBM Corporation

PLM Technical Support Series

CATIA V5 Administration

Customizing the CATIA Domain

By:

Bill Duke

http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/plm/support

IBM Product Lifecycle Management Worldwide Technical Support

Volume 3 Number 1.2

This series of technical papers focuses on topics of current interest within PLM Solutions. Your contributions and comments are welcome.

PLM Technical Support Series Customizing the CATIA Domain

Page 1 of 24 Copyright 2003 by IBM Corporation

CATIA Version 5 Administration Customizing the CATIA Domain

Bill Duke

IBM Corporation – Product Lifecycle Management Solutions

After installing CATIA V5, it is possible to operate CATIA using only the parameters delivered by the default product installation. As you work with CATIA, the environments will need to be customized to meet user and business needs. There are many techniques that the CATIA Administrator can employ to customize CATIA, especially when dealing with multiple workstations in a CATIA V5 Domain. This paper was written for CATIA V5R20 and covers some concepts for the CATIA V5 Administrator to make customizing a CATIA V5 Domain more efficient.

Introduction The administration of your CAD/CAM systems is an important part of the overall ability to keep your systems effective in your business. This paper covers CATIA V5 Administration with a focus on information for setting up and maintaining the customization of CATIA Environments on multiple Windows and UNIX workstations. This paper is intended for the administrator who wants to understand some concepts that are beyond the basics, so that value will be added to their current installation, and provide improvements for future installations. This is achieved with information on a distributed customization scheme. It will be shown how to eliminate duplicate work that is normally performed on each client workstation in your CATIA Domain, thus allowing you to become more efficient. This paper was written based on the knowledge and experience gained by working with customer problems and questions documented at the PLM Technical Support Center. It is intended to be a guide to the CATIA Administrator who wants to improve the methods they currently deploy at their company.



Table of Contents

I. Steps to customize a CATIA V5 Domain .................................................................................................3 II. What can be customized to meet the requirements of your CATIA environment?........................ 4 III. Setting up the Customization for the V5 CATIA Domain ...................................................................5

Environment Variables .............................................................................................................................. 5 Standards.....................................................................................................................................................7 Catalogs ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 Printing Customizations.......................................................................................................................... 12 Printing Options........................................................................................................................................ 12 Global Printers .......................................................................................................................................... 12 Customizing Toolbars and Workbenches............................................................................................ 14 CATIA Settings (CATSettings) ............................................................................................................... 15 Options that may be considered for customization:.......................................................................... 16 Controlled Data Storage using DLNames ............................................................................................ 17

IV. Set up networked directories for the customization of your CATIA Domain............................... 18 V. Install CATIA on a single workstation and customize it to meet your requirements .................. 19 VI. Perform network CATIA Installations on multiple workstations.................................................... 20

CATIA Installation over the Network:.................................................................................................... 20 CATIA Code Serving ................................................................................................................................ 22 Distributing a Service Pack from an Archive File............................................................................... 22

VII. Proliferate the customization over the Domain................................................................................ 23 VIII. Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 24 IX. Author:...................................................................................................................................................... 24 X. References................................................................................................................................................ 24 XI. Revision History ..................................................................................................................................... 24



I. Steps to customize a CATIA V5 Domain This paper is split into six sections to cover different steps for customizing a CATIA V5 Domain. These steps can be performed on either Windows or UNIX workstations.

I. You first need to determine what needs to be customized to meet you company’s requirements for your CATIA Environment.

II. Once you determine what needs to be customized, you will then need to understand how

CATIA is customized so you can set up the customization for a CATIA Domain. III. Once you understand your requirements and how CATIA handles the customization, you

will set up the networked directories for the customization files that your CATIA Domain will use.

IV. Then you install CATIA on a single workstation and customize it to meet your

requirements, using the networked customization directories. This step yields a networked CATIA domain consisting of one workstation.

V. Then you perform network CATIA Installations on multiple workstations to set up all of

your client workstations in your CATIA Domain. At the end of this step, you have all the workstations in your CATIA domain running with the default customizations provided by Dassault Systemes.

VI. Finally, you proliferate the customization by pointing the CATIA Environments on each

of the client workstations to the networked customization directories. Now you have a fully configured and customized CATIA domain.



II. What can be customized to meet the requirements of your CATIA environment? There are many items that can be customized in your CATIA Environment. This customization will be based on your company’s requirements. Since the purpose of this paper is to show how to customization a domain, it will focus on items that can be set up once and then proliferated in a networked environment. Setting up customizations for use over the network allows the administrator to set up and maintain the domain more efficiently as it will eliminate the customizing of the same items on multiple workstations. The customization of CATIA is stored in one of three file types: Environment Files, XML Files, and .CATSettings files. These file types will be discussed later in this paper when each of the customization items are discussed. The following list shows some examples of items that should be considered to customize a V5 CATIA Domain:

Environment Variables Standards Catalogs Printing Customizations Customizing Toolbars and Workbenches CATIA Settings (CATSettings)



III. Setting up the Customization for the V5 CATIA Domain

Environment Variables Environment Variables are pointers that CATIA uses to specify directory paths for specific CATIA items. They can be modified to alter the default location of these specific CATIA items. Setting these variables to networked directories allows the set-up of shared default and customized files. The nice thing about the Environment variables is they are all stored in text files, for example, on CATIA V5R20 P3 load, this file is called CATIA_P3.V5R20.B20.txt. Since the variables are stored in text files, it allows you to customize an environment on one workstation, and copy the text file to another workstation for implementation. This can only be done as long as the same install directory structure is used on both the client and source workstations. There are two types of Environment Variables: Global and User. Since the aim is to set up a CATIA Domain, only the Global Variables will be discussed, since they can only be changed by the Administrator, and affects all users. Some examples of Environment Variables that will be useful in customizing a CATIA Domain are: Default Variable Use ------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CATDocView Points to the location of the CATIA Online Documentation CATReferenceSettingPath Points to the location of the Administrator’s Locking Settings CATCollectionStandard Points to the location of the Customized Standards CATFeatureCatalogPath Points to the location of the Feature Catalogs User Defined Variable Use ------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINT_SETTING_PATH Points to the location to customize printer settings Although the environment variables are stored in a text file, it is best not to use a text editor to modify a variable’s value as an improper syntax could cause problems. Therefore, you should use the GUI Environment Editor that is provided with the CATIA code. This editor is started in Windows by going to Start –> Programs –> CATIA –> Tools –> Environment Editor. For UNIX workstations, it is started by running the CATIAENV command.



An example of the CATIA V5R20 Environment Editor Window with the list of variables and their values is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Environment Editor Window



Standards Standards are defined values for element properties. There are two types of standards, which can only be modified by the Administrator: default standards and user defined standards. Default Standards are standards that are defined by Dassault Systemes. User Defined Standards are standards that are created and managed by the Administrator. The default standards provided by Dassault Systemes can be used “out of the box” to allow a user to create and maintain CATIA Documents. Since many companies have standards that deviate from these “defaults”, the company’s CATIA Administrator will need to create the company’s standards (User Defined Standards) to reflect their requirements. The two different types of standards are saved in XML files and stored in the location defined by the Environment variables: CATDefaultCollectionStandard and CATCollectionStandard. CATDefaultCollectionStandard points to the directory that contains the Default Standards provided by Dassault Systemes. The default location for the variable CATDefaultCollectionStandard for Windows is: C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B20\intel_a\resources\standard The default location for the variable CATDefaultCollectionStandard for UNIX (AIX example) is: /usr/DassaultSystemes/B20/aix_a/resources/standard CATCollectionStandard points to a user defined directory that contains the User Defined Standards, created by the Administrator. Standards can be modified by using the interactive GUI editor that provides an easy to use graphic interface for customizing the parameters in the standard. The XML files can also be edited, but this is not recommended as an improper syntax could render the file useless. The easiest method for creating your company’s standard is to choose a default standard that is close to your requirements, make changes to it to meet your requirements using the graphic interface, then save it with a new name under the directory defined by the environment variable CATCollectionStandard.



There are three categories of Standards that are used, which can be modified: general parameters, drafting parameters, and Generative parameters. General parameters: Defines the default graphic attributes, parameters for layers and filters, and specifies the different line thickness. The default location for these XML files is: Windows:

C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B20\intel_a\resources\standard UNIX (AIX example): /usr/DassaultSystemes/B20/aix_a/resources/standard Figure 2 shows the standard definitions of the General Standards (for the Drafting Standard layers and filters).

Figure 2 - Tools -> Standards (General Category)



Drafting parameters: Defines the drafting properties that standardize the appearance and behavior of the drafting elements. The default location for these XML files is: Windows: C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B20\intel_a\resources\standard\drafting UNIX (AIX example): /usr/DassaultSystemes/B20/aix_a/resources/standard/drafting Figure 3 shows the standard definitions of the Drafting Standards (for the ANSI Standard).

Figure 3 – Tools -> Standards (Drafting Category)



Generative parameters: Defines the parameter and options that control the appearance and behavior of a generated view. The default location for this XML file is: Windows: C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B20\intel_a\resources\standard\generativeparameters UNIX (AIX example): /usr/DassaultSystemes/B20/aix_a/resources/standard/generativeparameters Figure 4 shows the standard definitions of the Generative Drafting Standards (for the Default Generative Style).

Figure 4 – Tools -> Standards (Generative Parameters Category)



Catalogs Catalogs are CATIA Documents that store and classify many objects for fast and easy retrieval by the CATIA user. These documents are setup by the Administrator and contain such items as hardware that can number in the thousands. These parts each have their own specific characteristics such as shape, color, size, diameter, length. Catalogs can either be created from scratch or thru the conversion of V4 CATIA Libraries. They are identified by the .catalog extension, and are stored in the location defined by the Environment Variable CATFeatureCatalogPath. Figure 5 shows the Catalog Browser opened to shown an example of what is contained in a Catalog. In this case, we are browsing the ISO Hexagon Head Bolts section of a catalog.

Figure 5 – Catalog Browser Window



Printing Customizations Dassault Systemes is updating CATIA V5’s customization possibilities for printing with each new release of CATIA. The following are the items whose customization could be useful to a CATIA domain: Printing Options To be able to modify some of the CATIA printing options, it is necessary to create a new environment variable PRINT_SETTING_PATH (as noted in the Environment section of this paper) and then create a CATPrint.ini file in the directory specified by this new variable. The only documented use of the CATPrint.ini file is to modify tiff images parameters such as dpi, color and file compression. Global Printers Global Printer in CATIA V5 allows all users to have access to the same printer definition files. This allows the administrator to set up the printer definitions in one location and point to the setup files from all other users. The support of Global Printers can be accessed under Tools –> Options –> General, under the Printers tab. The default location for the Printer Definition Directory is the user’s CATSettings/Printers directory. The nice thing about this setting is that it can be modified to point to a networked directory, which can be shared with all users. The use of the shared networked directory is what allows the printer definition files to be global. Figure 6 shows the Windows Example of the Printers tab with the “Printer Creation Directory” set to a networked directory. Also notice that this value can be locked by the administrator when accessing the Options in the admin mode to prevent the users from changing the settings.



Figure 6 – Tools –> Options Window: Printers Tab



Customizing Toolbars and Workbenches Customizing the toolbars and workbenches is typically done as a user preference thru Tools -> Customize. Since these customizations are stored in CATSettings files, they can be distributed over the network for an initial standard user set-up. Figure 7 shows the Tools -> Customize Window with the Start Menu Tab opened with some additions made to the “Favorites”.

Figure 7 - Tools –> Customize Window – Start Menu Tab The Options Tab in the Customize Window allows the position of the toolbars to be locked, and the language the user sees throughout CATIA to be changed. This User Interface Language defaults to the language that was chosen during the install, but it can be modified here if desired. The Administrator can also lock these two settings when in admin mode, to prevent the users from changing them.



The Options Tab under Tools –> Customize is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 – Tools –> Customize Window – Options Tab CATIA Settings (CATSettings) There are two types of CATIA Setting files: temporary and permanent. Temporary settings contain settings of a temporary nature. For example, some temporary setting files are album screen captures and roll files. Permanent settings contain CATIA customization information that is mainly obtained from Tools –> Options and stored in .CATSettings files in the location defined by the environment variable CATUserSettingPath. For example, some permanent settings are the location of the Documentation, what Licenses are declared, and the background color used. Note on CATSettings files: The easiest way to share the customization made under the Tools –> Options window is to copy all of the .CATSettings files in the source user’s CATSettings directory over to the networked “Starting CATSettings” directory for later use.



CATSettings files can also be exported and imported to XML files using the CATBatGenXMLSet and CATBatImpXMLSet commands. This method is not suggested for customizing a CATIA domain as it is time consuming. These scripts must be run on each CATSettings file and it isn’t useful since you can just share copies of the CATSettings files. An example of a Tool –> Options window is shown in Figure 9. This shows the Help tab under the General Options.

Figure 9 – Tools –> Options – Help Tab Options that may be considered for customization: There are some specific CATSettings files that are useful in customizing a CATIA Domain. The most common ones are locked options settings, controlled data storage using DLNames, and the Documentation location.



Locked Options Settings An Administrator may want to set some settings for an environment and then "lock" them so the users can't change them. The Documentation describes this as Locking the Options Settings. This is done by defining the Environment Variable CATReferenceSettingPath to points to a directory controlled by the Administrator / root for the storage of the locking files. When CATIA is started in the administrator mode and you go to the Tools -> Options to access the Options Panel, there are locking icons, which can be clicked to lock. Any change in this mode saves the altered .CATSettings files in the CATReferenceSettingPath directory. Controlled Data Storage using DLNames There are two methods for defining CATIA V5 data storage locations. They are thru Folders or by the locations defined by DLNames. Using folders, users can store data anywhere on the workstation by using the file tree. Thru the use of DLNames, CATIA V5 allows the implementation of a controlled data storage strategy to allow users to store data in directories only referenced by a DLName (Data Logical Name). When a user tries to open or save a CATIA document, he is presented with the File Section window, but he can only choose from the list of directories defined by DLNames. DLNames are set up and then locked down by the administrator in admin mode under Tools -> Options, under the General Category, Document Tab. Since this setup is done in administrator mode, the .CATSettings files that are created are placed in the directory defined by CATReferenceSettingPath (noted above). Documentation Location The Documentation location is a unique location because it is defined by an environment variable and a CATSettings file modified under Tools –> Options. These two settings have an effect on each other as follows: The environment variable CATDocView is the “default location. When a user starts CATIA for the first time, CATIA builds the DocView.CATSettings file with the value defined by the environment variable. If you change the documentation location under Tools –> Options, only the value in the .CATSettings file changes. Therefore, the “best” method to define the Documentation location is to define the Environment Variable first, and then let CATIA use this value to set the value in the CATSettings file. The Documentation location can be installed in one of three locations. The first location is a local directory, but this isn’t useful when trying to set up a CATIA Domain. The other two locations are in a Shared Network directory or in a Web Server directory, which are the two suggested methods for setting up a CATIA domain.



If the Documentation is installed in a Shared Network directory, the documentation path can be set to a NFS mounted directory (for UNIX) or a windows shared directory using the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) of the installed documentation. An example of a UNC directory would be: \\server_name\install_directory If the documentation is installed on a Web Server, the URL of the install directory can be used for the documentation path. The URL must be in double quotes, and the path must end with a slash (/). For example: “http://myserver/b20docs/English/” IV. Set up networked directories for the customization of your CATIA Domain Once you have determined your customization requirements and how to set up the customization, the next step is to set up a networked directory structure to store all of the customization files. Depending on your operating system, you have different options. For a UNIX operating system, a NFS mounted filesystem is the best method. For Windows operating systems, windows shared directories is an option as well as a Windows to UNIX access program such as samba or AIX Fast Connect. Figure 11 shows a list of directory examples that will be required to be set up based on your requirements. Some of the customization is for specific levels of CATIA, so there is a V5R20 in the path. For other customization, it can be used on any level of CATIA V5, so the directory paths include the directory V5. Directory Use Windows Example UNIX Example

* Online Documentation Z:\V5R20\Docs /V5R20/Docs Administrator’s Locked Settings Z:\V5R20\CATLocks /V5R20/CATLocks Standards Z:\V5\Standards /V5/Standards Feature Catalogs Z:\V5\Catalogs /V5/Catalogs Printer Setting Z:\V5\PrintSettings /V5/PrintSettings Global Printers Z:\V5\Printers /V5/Printers Starting CATSettings Z:\V5R20\CATSettings /V5R20/CATSettings

Figure 11 – Examples of Networked Directories Note: * Online Documentation can be set up for a networked directory if you don’t have a Web Server set up and running.



V. Install CATIA on a single workstation and customize it to meet your requirements The next step is to perform a “default” install of CATIA on a single workstation that is on the network. This is done to create the customization files necessary for use in the entire CATIA domain. After the “default” install of CATIA is done, and prior to starting CATIA for the first time, use the Environment Editor and modify the Environment Variables based on your requirements to point to the networked directories created in the previous step. Log into CATIA to set up the default CATSettings files based on the Environment file. Then logout of CATIA and then back in using the administrator mode and set up any of the following desired items: Standards and Catalogs, change any Tools Options and set up any desired locks, or customize the toolbars and workbenches. Finally, define the global printer definitions for the printers that will be shared, and set up any special printing requirements discussed previously. Once the customization is complete, verify that all the customization files were placed in the networked directories that were set up for shared customization.



VI. Perform network CATIA Installations on multiple workstations There are several different methods for distributing CATIA over a network. These methods are different for windows and UNIX workstations due to the operating system considerations. Within the methods of distributing the CATIA code, there are two types of distribution. One is Installing CATIA Code over the network, and the other is CATIA Code Serving over the network. Installing CATIA over the network involves installing the CATIA code from a source workstation over the network onto a single client workstation. CATIA Code Serving involves the sharing of the CATIA code on the source workstation over the network onto multiple client workstations at one time. Both types have their pros and cons, so you need to look at each one to see which is best for your company. No matter which method you choose, in order for the customization to work, CATIA must be installed in the same directory structure as the workstation where CATIA was customized from. This way all the variables point to the correct locations. The following is a summary of the different install methods available to distribute CATIA over the network: CATIA Installation over the Network: Installing CATIA V5 over the network on a client first starts with copying the content of the install CD(s) into a directory on a “Source” workstation. Then the CATIA code is accessed through the network to perform the install on a client workstation. There are 3 different ways for performing this.

Shared Directory Install (Windows) With this method, the directory containing the CATIA code on the “Source” workstation is shared. From each Client, the shared directory is mapped onto the Client, where the install is performed from the shared directory instead of from the CD(s). The install can be performed with the GUI window (using the setup command) or in batch mode without the GUI Window (using the StartB command).



RCMD Command Install (Windows) This method is similar to the Shared Directory Install method as the directory containing the CATIA code on the “Source” workstation is shared and the source directory is mapped onto the client workstation. The difference is how the workstations communicate. This method uses the RCMD command, which is part of the Windows Workstation Resource Kit. To use the RCMD Command, Remote Command Server code must be installed on the source and client workstations and the RCMDSVC service must be running.

Note: This method is not recommended as it is not officially supported by Microsoft or DS (but it is documented in the CATIA Online Documentation). Install Software from Compressed Form (Windows) After the install has been done on a “Source” workstation, compress the install directory (Example C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B20) using a compression software application such as WinZip. Put the zip file in a shared directory. Then on each Client, map the network drive to the directory that contains the zip file and extract the files onto the client. Then run a series of commands to set up the desktop and to prepare the operating system for running CATIA.

NFS Mounted Directory Install (UNIX)

This method is the same as the Windows Shared Directory Install except, the CATIA code is copied into an exported NFS directory on a UNIX workstation instead of a shared folder on a Windows Workstation. Then from each client, the install is performed from the NFS mounted directory instead of from the CD(s). The install can be performed with the GUI window (using the start command) or in batch mode without the GUI Window (using the start command with at least one install argument).

Notes on Distributed Installs: The above Distributed Install methods work with GA CATIA code and Service Pack Installs. The Online Documentation can only be installed off of the CDs. Since CATIA V5R11, the Install Shield silent file was dropped from supported as installations are now based on the StartB batch command.



CATIA Code Serving This set-up of CATIA has CATIA installed on a server, with Client accessing the CATIA code on the Server and running it on the Client. There are two methods for doing this:

Installing access to CATIA on a Thin Client (Windows) The steps for this method are similar to an “Install from a Compressed Form”. The difference is the code in placed on the workstation in the ”Install from a Compressed Form”, and this method the operating system only points to the code thru the mapping of the network directory of the install directory on the Server. All the steps to set up each Client remain the same as the ”Install from a Compressed Form” method.

Install a Reference Environment on a Client (UNIX) After the install has been done on the server, NFS export the install directory. Then on each Client, after setting some PATH and Library variables that point to the Install Directory, you create a "Reference" Environment on the client with the appropriate desktop files using the setcatenv command. Finally, you run the regserver command to set up the level of CATIA installed.

Distributing a Service Pack from an Archive File Distributing a service pack from an archive file is an alternate method of installing Service Packs on many workstations instead of performing the install from CDs onto each workstation. It is performed by building an archive file using the CATDeltaInstall command. The archive file can be compressed using an operating system specific tool (compressed tar file on UNIX or CabArc.exe utility on Windows) so it can be quickly copied from the “source” workstation onto the client workstations. On the client workstations the install files are uncompressed and then they are used to overwrite the existing install files on the client workstations. Notes: The Service Pack levels and product configuration on the client workstations must be the same as the source workstation. Installing Service Packs from an archive file automatically commits it, as the files overwrite the existing files.



VII. Proliferate the customization over the Domain After using one of the network installations methods to install a default installation of CATIA on your client workstations, it is time to customize them. Most of the work has already been performed in the previous steps, so to customize a client workstation only requires the following steps to be performed prior to starting CATIA for the first time: Access the shared directories on the operating system (NFS mounts on UNIX or mounted network drives on Windows). Replace the default Environment file with the customized file from the source workstation. These files are in the CATEnv directory. (If you don’t know where they are located, the actual path is provided on the top of the Environment Editor window.) Copy the .CATSettings files form the networked “Starting CATSettings” directory to the user’s CATSettings directory. Start CATIA as a user and ensure that the customization is complete…..



VIII. Conclusion The ability to keep your company’s CAD/CAM systems administered is an important part of your business. The administration of many workstations in a CATIA Domain can be very time consuming, but there are techniques for simplifying this workload through the use of shared networked directories. Using this technique will allow you to become more effective in your work. This paper provides information that will contribute to your knowledge of CATIA V5 Administration. It shows some tips and techniques to simplify the customization of multiple workstations, which will make you more efficient in the administration of CATIA. IX. Author: Bill Duke… is a member of the IBM PLM Technical Support Team with twenty-eight years of experience working on CAD/CAM systems at IBM. He initially worked in Manufacturing Engineering on the Mainframe computer mechanical designs using CADAM, GDP and CATIA, and has been apart of the support team for the last fourteen years. Bill is currently the leader of the Administration Support Team, is the System Administrator of the Americas Support Center, and is also responsible for the CATIA V4 and V5 Administration on IBM production ERE servers. Bill continually shares his expertise in system administration with authorship of technical papers and through presentations at the Annual COE Conferences. Duke earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University. Bill can be reached at [email protected]. X. References CATIA V5 Online Documentation: Infrastructure – Installation and Deployment Guide XI. Revision History Volume 3 Number 1.0 – Original document authored for 2003 usage Volume 3 Number 1.1 – Updated for V5R16 support Volume 3 Number 1.2 – Updated for V5R20 support ® CATIA is a registered trademark of Dassault Systemes. ® AIX is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. ® Windows XP and Windows Vista is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

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