Module

Tools

Why

tools/drawing.py

11

Needs a Drafting licence and produces 2D views, unrelated to solids

tools/knowledge.py

5

Parameters / formulas / design tables

Tool

What it gives you

catia_run_plan

Runs an ordered {tool, args} recipe in one call, then asserts volume / area / face / edge / vertex counts / centre of gravity

catia_measure_topology

Face, edge and vertex counts — the cheapest guard against a part with the right volume and the wrong shape

catia_set_component_transform

Absolute placement from a row-major 3×3 (transposed server-side) or CATIA's native 12 numbers; reads back and reports deviation, det, orthogonality

catia_get_component_transform

The same placement in both conventions, plus where local X/Y/Z point in the assembly

catia_rename_component

A readable assembly tree. Part.Name is read-only on V5-6R2020, so every part arrives as Part1.1 / Part2.1 / …; the instance name is writable

Defect

Effect upstream

Position.GetComponents never fills a Python list (SAFEARRAY out-param does not marshal through late-bound IDispatch)

catia_move_component wrote twelve zeros back and erased the component's rotation; catia_list_components reported every component at (0, 0, 0)

doc.Part / doc.Product raise AttributeError: <unknown>.Part on a gen_py-typed document

catia_new_part and every measurement failed depending on cache state

SaveAs leaves a modal dialog open, freezing the serial STA worker

Documented upstream as a runtime limit ("close the dialog yourself") — but the worker thread that would close it is the blocked one

Topology.Edge on a body also returns the consumed sketch's lines

A 40×20×10 box counted 16 edges / 12 vertices instead of 12 / 8

catia_shaft / catia_groove called AddNewShaft(sketch) and assigned FirstAngle = angle

The feature could never be updated (E_FAIL), so no turned part could be built at all — piston, cylinder-head cover and front cover had no other route

catia_hole with a finite depth reported success while cutting nothing

The depth is stored on BottomLimit but not applied on B30; the tree carried a dead feature that poisoned every later measurement

Argument

Why a spec needs it

catia_create_sketch → offset, or {"type": "offset", "base", "distance"}

A spec says "on the z=530 face". Only three datum planes existed, so most features of a real part could not be placed. The offset plane is inserted into the body — AddNewPad rejects a sketch whose support lives in a geometrical set

catia_create_sketch → {"type": "face", "index"}

For a face that is not parallel to a datum plane. Sketches on a face use that face's own coordinate frame, which cannot be read back through automation — prefer the offset form whenever the face is axis-aligned

catia_sketch_line → construction

A revolution axis or reference geometry that must not join the profile

catia_pocket / catia_hole → through_all

CATIA's "up to last": the cut finds its own extent instead of you guessing a depth taller than the part

catia_shaft / catia_groove → axis (horizontal/vertical)

Which of the sketch's two absolute axes to revolve about. A construction line is accepted by the property setter and then rejected at update time, so it is not offered

Group

Tools

Notes

Document

9

new/open/save/close/list; catia_save_document retries around dialogs

Sketcher

11

lines, rectangles, circles, constraints

Part Design

18

pad, pocket, groove, fillet, chamfer, hole, patterns, mirror, shell…

Generative Shape Design

24

wireframe and surfaces, revolve + close surface

Assembly

11

upstream 9 + get/set component transform

Measurement

6

inertia, distance, bounding box*, parameters

Export

4

STEP / STL / IGES hand-off

Planner

2

run_plan, measure_topology

Diagnostics

1

catia_diagnose