Building an Assembly

This task shows you how to use the Insert Existing Component and Replace Component commands. These enable you to insert existing parts and assemblies as components of the current assembly or replace an existing part, product, or a component of the current product.

Inserting a Component  

  1. Open an assembly structure in CATIA.

  2. Select a Product and from the Insert menu, select Existing Component... .
    Alternatively, right-click the Product and select Components > Existing Component....

    Or
    Select the Product and from the Product Structure toolbar, click the Existing Component icon.

    The Insert an Existing Component dialog box appears as shown below:

    Note: The Document Environment settings must be set to Current to be able to use the Find capabilities. For more information, see Documents Environments.

  3. In the Insert an Existing Component dialog box, on the left hand side, select from where you want to search component. You can select Search, Documents Desktop, or Items Desktop.

  4. To search object from Search Editor, select Search on the left hand side menu, and in the Class name list select the type of object you want to search.

    -Or-
    From the search panel, click Find Object icon.
    The Search Editor dialog box appears.
    To know more about searching using Search Editor dialog box, see Running a Predefined Search.

    Note: Find Object option is not available while searching objects from Documents Desktop, or Items Desktop.

  5. In the Insert an Existing Component dialog box, click Run.
    The searched objects appear in the Insert an Existing Component dialog box.

  6. In the displayed dialog box, choose an object, and click OK.

    The document is inserted into the assembly structure.
 

Replacing a Component

To replace a component,

  1. Select the component you want to replace in the product structure, and from the Product Structure toolbar, click the Replace Component icon.

    -Or-
    Right-click the component in the product structure and select Components > Replace Component...

    The Replace a Component dialog box appears as shown below:



    Note: The Document Environment settings must be set to Current to be able to use the Find capabilities. For more information, see Documents Environments.

  2. Repeats the steps from 3 to 6 from the Inserting Components.

    The object is replaced in the product structure.