I have an .stp file, exported with a different CAD-software, which I can open with CATIA. CATIA will then list the product/part tree as if it were a native CATIA .CATProduct.
My goal is to automate opening such an .stp file with CATIA and saving all contained parts/products with a name that is extracted from one of the UserRefProperties in each of these parts/products. Therefore I want to create a macro with VBA which when completed will run in batch mode.
My first problem arises when I try to save the parts/products in this .stp file, Catia's save function handles my file as desired and will save each part/product as a separate file. However, using VBA I can't seem to be able to save any of these parts/products since the .ExportData and .SaveAs methods only seem to work on .PartDocument or .ProductDocument objects instead of the objects which I've been trying to save: .Product objects.
Example of what I'm trying to do:
Sub catmain()
Dim oProdDoc As ProductDocument
Set oProdDoc = CATIA.ActiveDocument
Dim oRootProd As Product
Set oRootProd = oProdDoc.Product
Dim oInstances As Products
Set oInstances = oRootProd.Products
For k = 1 To oInstances.Count
Dim oInst As Product
Set oInst = oInstances.Item(k)
oInst.ExportData "X:\path", ".CATPart"
next
end sub
If CATIA can save my .stp file's contents as desired, surely I can do the same with VBA, right?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The Product at the root of the tree can be saved as a CATProduct document. Any sub-products within the tree can also be saved as a CATProduct. The Parts, which are the leaves of the tree can be saved as CATParts.
You can save the root Product like this:
Dim rootProdDoc As ProductDocument
set rootProdDoc = CATIA.ActiveDocument
rootProdDoc.SaveAs "C:\Temp\" & rootProd.PartNumber & ".CATProduct"
However, when you do this, CATIA will complain that "This activates other save operations, do you want to continue?" It does this because the Parts are not yet saved. Answering yes CATIA will save your assembly and all the parts. However because you are not in control of the part saving it will preclude you from setting the names for those documents you want.
And because you have to answer a dialog, it will prevent you from making a batch program.
The right way to do this is to first save the leaf documents and then work "up" the tree the root level by level. Then everything will be saved when you need it to be.
----------Class clsSaveInfo definition--------------
Public level As Integer
Public prod As Product
-----------------(module definition)---------------
Option Explicit
Sub CATMain()
CATIA.DisplayFileAlerts = False
'get the root product
Dim rootProd As Product
Set rootProd = CATIA.ActiveDocument.Product
'make a dictionary to track product structure
Dim docsToSave As Scripting.Dictionary
Set docsToSave = New Scripting.Dictionary
'some parameters
Dim level As Integer
Dim maxLevel As Integer
'read the assembly
level = 0
Call slurp(level, rootProd, docsToSave, maxLevel)
Dim i
Dim kx As String
Dim info As clsSaveInfo
Do Until docsToSave.count = 0
Dim toRemove As Collection
Set toRemove = New Collection
For i = 0 To docsToSave.count - 1
kx = docsToSave.keys(i)
Set info = docsToSave.item(kx)
If info.level = maxLevel Then
Dim suffix As String
If TypeName(info.prod) = "Part" Then
suffix = ".CATPart"
Else
suffix = ".CATProduct"
End If
Dim partProd As Product
Set partProd = info.prod
Dim partDoc As Document
Set partDoc = partProd.ReferenceProduct.Parent
partDoc.SaveAs ("C:\Temp\" & partProd.partNumber & suffix)
toRemove.add (kx)
End If
Next
'remove the saved products from the dictionary
For i = 1 To toRemove.count
docsToSave.Remove (toRemove.item(i))
Next
'decrement the level we are looking for
maxLevel = maxLevel - 1
Loop
End Sub
Sub slurp(ByVal level As Integer, ByRef aProd As Product, ByRef allDocs As Scripting.Dictionary, ByRef maxLevel As Integer)
'increment the level
level = level + 1
'track the max level
If level > maxLevel Then maxLevel = level
'see if the part is already in the save list, if not add it
If allDocs.Exists(aProd.partNumber) = False Then
Dim info As clsSaveInfo
Set info = New clsSaveInfo
info.level = level
Set info.prod = aProd
Call allDocs.add(aProd.partNumber, info)
End If
'slurp up children
Dim i
For i = 1 To aProd.products.count
Dim subProd As Product
Set subProd = aProd.products.item(i)
Call slurp(level, subProd, allDocs, maxLevel)
Next
End Sub