CATIA Tip: Sketcher Booleans

Another way to save some mouse clicks — and some time.

Screen Shot 2021 07 12 At 11 04 26 Am

In today’s edition of CATIA Tips in a Minute or Less, we’re looking at another way to save some mouse clicks and some time. Once again, our focus is in the Sketcher workbench.

It’s pretty common to create a sketch that is built from several basic shapes. The general approach is to draw these shapes, then use the Trim commands to cut off any excess geometry. Below, I’ve drawn two rectangles, then double-clicked Quick Trim and knocked out the extra pieces in the middle.

Image 1

That works, but there’s a faster method: Boolean Operations. As of version V5-V6R2018, Booleans aren’t just limited to bodies; they can also be performed in Sketches. This time, after drawing the second rectangle, immediately right-click it and head to the object menu. In there, pick Add, which will combine the two shapes, saving the hassle of having to manually trim these.

Image 2

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when using Booleans in Sketcher. For further reading, check out this blog post by my colleague, CATIA V5: Sketcher Boolean Operations, or stay tuned for the next installment of CATIA Tips in a Minute or Less.

Scott Henderson is a technical training engineer at Rand 3D.

More in Design Software