Computer-Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application V6 (CatiaV5)

Similar to the CATIA platform, the CATIA format is a respective native file format developed by Dassault Systèmes. Available in three versions CatiaV4, CatiaV5, and CatiaV6, these files are widely used in automotive, aerospace, and industrial equipment industries. CATIA files can contain 3D models, assemblies, 2D drawings, and associated metadata.

🔍 See 3D Data Resources for details and definitions.

Extensions

Supported:

  • .CATPart: 3D data in general (wire geometry, surfaces, solids)

  • .CATProduct: Spatial arrangement and organization of CATParts and other CATProducts, as well as additional metadata such as constraints, sections, annotations, measures, scenes

  • .cgr: representing a simplified model of the outer shell of bodies, approximated by flat triangular surfaces.

Not supported:

  • .CATDrawing

  • .CATMaterial

Structure

CatiaV5 offers a very flexible tree. It differentiates between multiple types of documents and nodes in a tree. The following is a selection of the most common ones:

  • Products

  • Part

  • Part Body

  • Shape

  • Others

    • Materials

    • Datums

    • Parameters

    • Representations

    • Relations

    • …

instant3Dhub general supports structural information. Specifically the following are supported:

  • External reference usually in the form of a linked STEP or CatiaV4.

We are currently developing for:

  • Construction Geometries

  • Invisible Geometries (typically set to Hide in Catia)

Geometry

Catia is based on the CGM modeler. It supports a wide range of geometry types typically reprenseted in the form of B-Rep. instant3Dhub generally supports them.

CatiaV5 can contain pretesselation as well as BREP descriptions. Usually the part geometry is pretesselated. Special nodees like construction geometries or invisible geometries are not pretessellated. instant3Dhub will prefer pretesselation when loading a CatiaV5 file, if non is available it will load and tesselate the BREP description.

The .cgr extension format is similar to the STL format, representing a simplified model of the outer shell of bodies, approximated by flat triangular surfaces.

To learn more about working with geometries refer to InstanceGraphAPI and TopologyAPI.

PMI & Model Views

Catia supports PMI (Product Manufacturing Information) in the form of annotations, dimensions, and GD&T typically created in either the Functional Tolerancing and Annotation module or the Tolerance Advisor. instant3Dhub supports PMI.

Metadata

TBD

Service Negotiation Key

  • model/vnd.dassault.catia.V5

Resources

For more information on Catia refer to



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