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ENOVIA VPLM VPM Navigator PDF
ENOVIA VPLM VPM Navigator PDF
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
ENOVIA VPLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
ENOVIA VPM Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CATIA V5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
ENOVIA VPLM VPM Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
CATIA Pull Down Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Insert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Analyze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
VPM Navigator Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
VPM Search Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
VPM Session Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Assembly Design Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Manual Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Logging into ENOVIA VPM Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
ENOVIA is a Multi-User Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Introduction
ENOVIA VPM Navigator
Upon completion of this course, the student should have a full understanding of the
following topics:
CATIA V5
CATIA V5 (Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application) is the primary
CAD tool integrated with ENOVIA used to define, manage, and simulate the manufacturing
of a product. You will use the CATIA Assembly Design and Part Design workbenches
exclusively to build and constrain your products. You should already be familiar to the
various tools available to you in the CATIA Part Design and Sketcher workbenches. These
tools will be critical when you begin working on the relational design aspects of this course.
Very few finished designs are a single part. Usually a finished design consists of several to
millions of individual parts to define them. This is where CATIA V5 Assembly Design is
utilized. Assembly design allows parts and small assemblies of parts to be inserted to make
larger, more complete products. In CATIA V5 Part Design and Sketcher, you learned how
to generate parts.
It is important to understand some of the terminology that CATIA uses when working with
assemblies and how they map to ENOVIA. There are basically three types of documents
that are used in assembly design. They are the overall assembly, sub-assemblies and
individual models. CATIA uses the word “product” to refer to assemblies and “part” to
refer to individual models. You can use parts to create products and then in turn use those
products to produce other products. When you talk about these objects in ENOVIA terms,
you will have products as the overall assembly, assembly instances for the sub assemblies,
and then part instances for the individual parts.
The first product at the top of the tree is generally regarded as the assembly, or product in
ENOVIA, whereas the two products that are underneath are generally regarded as sub-
assemblies of this assembly. With this concept in mind be aware that an assembly could be
a very complex document due to its ability to have multiple levels of sub-assemblies and
parts. Because of this complexity it is important that you have a plan of attack when
building assemblies. There are basically two approaches that a user or company can take
when building assemblies. One is to pre-determine what sub-assemblies a particular
assembly is going to need. The other is to produce all of the parts and then determine what
sub-assemblies are going to be created.
In this exercise you will be navigating within VPM Navigator using a series of icons. Here
are a few of the main icons.
Identifies part from CATIA to VPM Navigator or from VPM Navigator to CATIA
Before discussing product structure you are going to open a product in VPM Navigator to
look at the structure. In later exercises there will be more details on the actual process.
In CATIA select the New VPM Navigator icon. This icon is located in the ENOVIA
V5 toolbar. The New VPM Navigator window appears.
Select on the right arrow as show in the picture above. This will show the All PRCs tab.
Select on the All PRCs tab. All the Product Root Classes will be listed.
Right click on Wheel Assembly Config Node.1 and select Expand All. The branch is
expanded. This is an easy way to automatically expand a branch in the product structure.
You could always select the plus and minus symbols in the tree to expand and collapse the
structure as well.
Change the Objects field to Part Instance and select OK. All the part instances in the tree
will be highlighted. In general, in order to open anything from the VPM Navigator window,
you must have it selected in the tree. The Select Under option provides an easy way to
select and entire branch of the product structure to open. Keep in mind you could manually
select the instances from the tree using the Ctrl or Shift keys on the keyboard.
Right click for a third time on Wheel Assembly Config Node.1 and select Open from the
contextual menu. The Open Modes window appears. This window will be discussed in
much more detail later on in this manual.
Select OK to the Open Modes window. The selected objects are opened in a CATIA
window in the context of the Hydraulic Jack product.
To switch back to VPM Navigator, select on the Window drop down menu and select
VPMNav\Hydraulic Jack. You are switched back to the VPM Navigator window.
The general product structure of any product in the ENOVIA database is laid out as follows:
Product Class Root A product class root is essentially a folder that organizes
products in the ENOVIA database. This is the highest level of
the product structure and usually represents a division of a
company or a product line.
Product Root Class A product root class is the grouping of parts that make an
assembly.
Expand out the Wheel Assembly Config Node.1, then Swivel Wheel Assembly.1, then
Rear Wheel Bracket.1, then 595-0001-765. Notice the CATIA specification tree is almost
exactly the same as the VPM Navigator specification tree.
Select on the ENOVIA Search icon. The CATIA window changes to a Results
window and the VPM Search window appears.
Domains Specifies what type of object you would like to search for
Objects Specifies exactly what object you want to search for. You can select
from Technological Packages, Document Revisions, Products,
Actions, Part Versions, VPM Clashes, Captures, or Part Instances.
Latest Revision... Specifies only the latest revision of a Part Version, Document
Revision or Part Instance will be included in the search
Easy Search Allows you to search based on the list of available attributes
Advanced Search Allows you to customize your search with different operators and
conditions
Key in 595-0001-712 into the Part Number field under the Easy Search tab. This is the
part number you will search for.
Select then right click on the part number 595-0001-712 and select Open.
In Context (Product) Opens the selected parts within their respective product structure in
CATIA
With visible Children Specifies that any sub elements of the selected product
that are exposed in the tree will be opened as well
With Children at all levels Specifies that all sub elements of a selected product
regardless of whether they are expanded in the tree
will be opened too
Out of Context The object is opened outside the context of a product. Typically you
are opening a part version or document.
Insert in VPM... Loads selected parts into a viewer in CATIA. Parts from
multiple products can be opened in one VPM Session.
Target Allows you to choose the VPM session the part will be
loaded into
Automatic lock of ..... Requires that no one else have the same part or document currently
opened in an unlocked status. Since multiple designers will be
opening and working under the same product, many people will
probably have the same part or document open, so this function will
not work.
Verify Out of Context, Insert in VPM Session, and New are all selected, then select OK.
The CATIA model will appear in a VPM Session.
Switch over to the search results window. Remember this can be done by selecting the
Window drop down menu and then 1 RESULT.
In the search results window select the VPM Search icon on the right hand side
toolbar. This will bring up the VPM Search window with the old search criteria.
Change the Part Number to be 328-7448-004. This part you are searching for is from a
different product than the first part.
Select OK. The part 328-7448-004 will be opened in the first VPM Session you opened
since the Target was selected to be VPM Session-1. If multiple VPM Sessions were open
you could use the Choose Window button to select a particular window.
Close the VPM Session window. This will take you back to the Results window.
Select the VPM Search icon. The VPM Search window will appear.
Notice in the bottom left corner the search has found 43 items though you can only see 20
items on this page. The number or results per page is based on a Tools, Options setting.
You can use the left and right arrows on the bottom of this window to scroll to different
pages.
Select on the part numbers from -701 to -715, then right click on the selection, and
select Open.... You will have to hold down the Shift key to muli-select. The Open Modes
window appears.
Notice all the parts came in stacked on one another. This is because you opened just the
part reference which has no knowledge of the location of the parts inside of a product. You
see just the part geometry but you do not see the position of the instance.
Close the VPM Session window. The Results window will appear.
Select the VPM Search icon. The VPM Search window appears.
Change the Objects field to Part Instance and retype in 595-0001-* for the Part
Number. Select OK. The view does not change much, but now you are looking at part
instances. The instance names are listed in the window further to the right.
In the results window select part numbers from -701 to -715, then right click on the
selection, and select Open.... The Open Modes window appears.
Notice that In Context (Product) is automatically checked. This is because you selected part
instances which will contain the position information within the product.
Close the CATIA window. You should be back in the Results window.
Select the VPM Search icon. The VPM Search window appears.
Change the Objects field to Document Revision and key in 595-0001-701 for the
Document ID. Select OK. The parts appear in the Results window.
In the Results window select the 595-0001-701 part, then right click on it, and select
Open. The Open Modes window appears.
Select on the ENOVIA Search icon to start a new VPM Search window. This will
define a new search.
Change the Objects to Product and the Product ID to *. For the search to work at least
one search field must have some criteria.
The parts open in a VPM Navigator window, this is the main interface between CATIA and
the ENOVIA database where you can view the product structure of an assembly without
actually loading the part definition in CATIA. This window is recognized mainly by the
background which is a teal color.
Close both the VPM Navigator window and the Result window. Next, you’ll see
another way you can access this product in a VPM Navigator window.
Select the New VPM Navigator icon. The New VPM Navigator window appears.
This first tab will show you the Last Opened PRCs or the last products opened.
Select the right arrow icon to scroll over to the next tab, then select on the All PRCs
tab. This tab will show you all the products in the database.
In this VPM Navigator window the product, Hydraulic Jack, is at the top and below it are
four configuration nodes.
Expand out the Base Config Node by right clicking on it and selecting Expand All.
This is the first step to opening some parts in CATIA.
Simple
Advanced
Make sure the Objects option is set to Part Instance and select OK to the Select Under
window. You now have to choose what you want VPM Navigator to select.
Right click on the Base Config Node and select Open. The Open Modes window appears.
In CATIA select the Fit All In icon. The screen is resized to view the model.
Switch back to the VPM Navigator window that has the Hydraulic Jack opened.
Right select on the Wheel Assembly Config Node.1 and select Open. The Open Modes
window appears.
Select the With Children at all levels option and select OK. The entire configuration node
and all of its sub elements are opened in CATIA. This is a little easier way to open an entire
sub assembly.
Right click on the Hydraulic Jack product and select Expand All. This will expand out
every configuration node and subassembly.
Right click on the Hydraulic Jack product again and select Select Under. The Select
Under window appears.
Leave the Objects set to Part Instance and select OK. All the part instances are selected.
Select the Open icon. If you were to right click on the Hydraulic Jack product, Open
would not be listed in the menu. Therefore you have to use the icon.
Make sure In Context is selected and select OK to the Open Modes window. The
Hydraulic Jack is loaded into CATIA.
When repeating these steps on other products you want to be aware of how many parts you
are loading into CATIA. With the Hydraulic Jack there is about 50 parts. If there were
1000 parts, the load time would be considerably longer or possibly crash your computer.
With the hydraulic jack loaded into CATIA in the Assembly Design workbench, you have
the ability to measure, manipulate, modify, build additional parts, and analyze this model. In
the next several sections the book will cover how to do a lot of this.