connect CATIA V5 using LabVIEW

[wilburwu]

Hello,

I|m searching the way to read and control the CATIA CAD model from LabVIEW.

Is there any suggetions or examples for my case?

I knew that it is able to connect to CATIA from VB or even JAVA but I cannot find the "CATIA.Application" object in the ActiveX list in LabVIEW. For instance: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8619546/is-there-a-way-to-exchange-data-with-catia-v5-r20-using-j...

It will be great if any one give me some help!

Wilbur

[rolfk]

Unfortunately, while COM is the basic protocol ActiveX is built upon it is not enough to make a COM interface ActiveX compliant. As such accessing a COM interface from within LabVIEW is not possible directly. The only way to do that is by creating an external component in C, C++, VB, (even C# although that will be quite painful since it means interfacing to unmanaged code in terms of C# programming) and then integrating the resulting library as DLL or ActiveX control into LabVIEW.

LabVIEW absolutely needs the ActiveX additions to COM in order to be able to determine the exported classes, methods and properties of a COM object. COM itself does not have a clean way of enumerating those things for a visually integrated environment like LabVIEW. If NI would have made access to raw COM objects possible, you would have to configure a configuration dialog for every COM object, method and property, where writing the according C code to access that object would be in fact at least as simple or even easier.

[Zach J]

Hi Wilbur,

With ActiveX containers you might be able to access CATIA, but it would be something you need to develop on your own.  We have the capability to work with SOLIDWORKS from our SoftMotion Module in LabVIEW to control a CAD model's movement, but nothing with CATIA at this point.  

Here's a simple example of using the SoftMotion for SOLIDWORKS capability: http://www.ni.com/tutorial/9566/en/

[Sam_Sharp]

I think, as well, you might be able to output the files from CATIA into a more standard format (e.g. STEP files?) which you can then import into a 3D Picture Control. It's been a few years since I was playing around with it, but I think it's possible. I think you would need to manage the linkages between the parts in the assembly yourself.

[HAMDI91]

please how to solve this problem

solidworks 2015 sp1  Labview 2015 sp1