Compound primitive

In some domains, dedicated primitives represent a entire system and are defined by several CAD parts. Therefore the primitive has to be associated with an assembly of CAD bodies. To associate a primitive with an assembly:

Procedure

1. Create a new frame to the scene. From the Add menu, select Frame and click on the 3D scene. A frame is displayed at the location you pick. It is also visible in the Object tree.

Note Depending on the primitive it is necessary to put the frame at a specific location. Using the Object inspector of the frame, the position and rotation are set to match the specified origin point and orientation of the assembly frame.

Figure 148: Object tree with new frame

2. From the Object tree select all bodies that are part of the assembly and drag-and-drop them on the frame.

Figure 149: Assembly creation

3. Associate a primitive with the frame. All bodies under the frame are part of the primitive and are displayed in the 3D scene of the Primitive association window.The Primitive association window is similar to the one that is used for simple primitive. To complete the association you must also select the Parts of the primitive.

The lists of the Domain and the Type are restricted to the elements that are compatible with compound primitive.

CAD solid bodies describing the primitive parts can be selected manually with the sign.

Figure 150: Associating a compound primitive

Results

Once the dialog is validated the primitive appears in the Object tree. The CAD part is colored to distinguish it from other parts.

Figure 151: Display of a compound primitive in CAD Import

Note

All the CAD bodies that are parts of the primitive cannot be associated anymore. The sign is not available for them.

Note

The primitive type can appear in red in the object tree if a primitive port or a parameter is not set.

A primitive can be disassociated from a CAD part with the sign.

You can undo the primitive association creation, edition or deletion.

Dynamic number of parts

Most compound primitives have fixed numbers of parts. Nevertheless it is convenient to have the capability for some applications to set a number of parts that varies according to the CAD assembly and the primitive. The following icon indicates that the number of parts can be modified.

Click on the button .

A dialog window is displayed to edit the numbers of each type of parts.

Figure 152: Parts number edition window