Comparing Catalog Item CAD Info

About Comparing Catalog Item CAD Info

One of the benefits of CES is that it provides sourcing and manufacturing information to the designers and engineers. This information can be used during development to determine which parts already exist within the enterprise and are readily available, and which need to be created. To decide which part to use in development, it is often helpful to compare the attributes of similar parts. For more information on comparing attributes, refer to Comparing Catalog Item Details. It is also helpful to compare two parts either visually or geometrically.

When comparing two items from the Sourcing Search Results window, the Compare Products window appears. This is the same window that is used when comparing products in DMU Space Analysis. For more information on the Compare Products window, please refer to DMU Space Analysis : User Tasks : Comparing Products.

When Comparing Catalog Item CAD Info

  • Only Internal Items with Specifications can be compared.
  • Only two items can be compared visually or geometrically. If more than two items are selected in the Sourcing Search Results window, the Compare Geometry of CES Items button is disabled.
  • If one of the selected items cannot be loaded or is not present in ENOVIA V5 VPM, an error message is displayed.
  • The two elements being compared are launched in memory.
  • The parts being compared must be CATParts.
  • The Save option is only available when performing a geometric comparison.
  • The compare functionality also supports V4 models.

How To Compare Catalog Item CAD Info

This task explains how to compare the geometry of two items listed in the Sourcing Search Results window:
This example assumes that:
  • you have CATIA Client running and it has access to a CES database that has been populated with manufacturer, supplier and internal item information
  • you have logged in to ENOVIA V5 VPM and CES. For more information on logging in, refer to Logging in to ENOVIA V5 VPM in CATIA and Accessing CES Functionality.
  • you have performed a search for internal items using attribute values appropriate for your database
  • you have obtained search results with two or more items
  1. In the Sourcing Search Results window, select two items. Click the Compare Geometry of CES Items button on the CES toolbar. Both items are opened in the Product Structure window and the Compare Products window appears.



  2. The names of the older version and newer version are displayed in the Old version: and New version: text boxes. You can compare the two items either geometrically or visually by selecting the appropriate radio button and clicking Preview. In this example, if you select Visual Comparison the Visual Comparison section of the Compare Products window is enabled. This lets you adjust the accuracy of the comparison and which versions to use. Click Preview, the following appears:

  3. Next, select the Geometric Comparison radio button. The Geometric Comparison section is enabled, so you can set the Computation accuracy, the Display accuracy and indicate what Type of comparison to perform. Make the desired changes and click Preview. The following appears:

Compare Products Window

This table describes the fields displayed in the Compare Products window.

Fields Description

Old version:

Contains the name of the older item.

New version:

Contains the name of the newer item.

Use local axis system

Check this to compare two products defined with respect to the local axis systems, irrespective of the position of products in the document. If this is not selected, comparison is with respect to the absolute axis system in the document (default value).

Computation accuracy

Set this to determine the size of the cubes used to represent the material added and/or removed. A lower setting results in slower computation time, but a more precise calculation of differences.

Display accuracy

Set this to determine the coarseness of the display of the computation results to give a better graphics display performance. By default, the display accuracy is set to the same value as the computation accuracy.

Type

Set this to indicate the type of differences to compute. Possible values are:
  • Added: Computes differences where material has been added only.
  • Removed: Computes differences where material has been removed only.
  • Added + removed: Computes differences where material has been both added and removed. Differences are displayed in separate views and saved in different files.
  • Changed: Computes differences where material has been both added and removed, displaying all changes in both views and letting you save changes in the same file.

Comparison accuracy

Sets the minimum distance between two products beyond which products are considered different. A higher value gives a cleaner image.


This table describes the buttons displayed in the Compare Products window:

Button Description

Geometric Comparison

Select this for a comparison in which the differences between assemblies or products are represented by cubes with separate views showing added and removed material.

Visual Comparison

Select this for a comparison that is entirely visual. A single view shows the results. Visual comparison offers faster and finer comparison than geometric comparison. Computation time is proportional to the size of the Visual Comparison viewer. Visual comparison is purely in terms of pixels; zooming in gives a better view.

Both Versions

Select this to display common material and both versions of the product.

Old Only

Select this to display common material and the old version of the product.

New Only

Select this to display common material and the new version of the product.

Save

Save the results in a file. This option is only available when performing a geometric comparison.

Preview

Display the compared objects using the specified options.

Close

Close the window without saving the comparison results.