CATIA Assembly Design 2 (ASD) is a Platform 2 product for managing multi-format (CATIA V4, V5, VRML or STEP) product definition with constraints and component positions in a highly productive way to support collaboration across multiple environments. It gives you the ability to design in assembly context with a user-controlled associativity, to perform concurrent engineering between the design of the assembly and the design of individual components through hierarchical assemblies using a top-down or bottom-up approach.

Unique tools for collaboration and rapid product reuse are included through the template technology which enables significant reductions in product development time and team review.

Extended productivity tools like constraint validation, publication, and degree of freedom analysis combined with collision and clearance checking ensure high quality and logical product definition. Flexible sub-assembly gives the user the real-world product simulation by utilizing the logical physical behaviour derived from mechanical assembly definition.

Features

• Real-world product simulation by utilizing the unique flexible behavior derived from mechanical assembly definition
• Design in assembly context with user-control of associativity with contextual link
• Template technology for rapid reuse and concurrent working by utilizing the publication mechanisms
• Multi-format support for design through the extended enterprise

Key customer benefits

• Top-down assemblies
  CATIA Assembly Design 2 (ASD), productive generation of assembly structures is due in part to its intuitive, top-down definition of assembly structures involving parts and subassemblies with an unlimited number or levels. Menus control modifications to the assembly structure, including cut, copy, paste, etc. CATIA Assembly Design 2 (ASD) design in assembly context provides user control of associativity. A part can be designed using the assembly context. When changes are made, you can control the propagation of modifications.
  
  
• Concurrent engineering
  ASD supports concurrent engineering during the design of the assembly and its individual parts. Parts specifications are managed independently from assembly specifications.
  
  
• Advanced constrained or unconstrained part placements
  Multiple unconstrained part placement methods can be proposed to accelerate the preliminary definition of assemblies. Parts can be snapped in position, dragged and dropped using rotations or translations.
  
  
• Automated parts placement
  Intuitive specifications of assembly constraints include contacts between the planar, cylindrical, spherical, circle and conical faces of a part.
  
  
• Dynamic parts movement
  ASD supports dragging parts into position and moving constrained parts by respecting their assembly constraints, or freely moving them without constraints.
  
  
• Dynamic analysis of assembly definitions
  ASD offers fully integrated, part-to-part collision detection and distance and clearance analysis functions (on exact or mock-up geometry representations). The user may perform an analysis of the assembly constraint network at any time. When design changes have caused an assembly inconsistency or an over-constrained situation, a diagnosis will be produced.
  
  
• Assembly structure editor
  The Assembly Structure Editor offers an intuitive and powerful management of the assembly structure to facilitate design changes, including capture of assembly intent and fast assembly changes through edit, cut, copy, paste and drag and drop.
  
  
• Assembly features
  ASD gives you the ability to perform pocket, split, hole, remove and add features at the assembly level. You can also use an existing Part Design feature as an input for the command. Assembly Hole features have the flexibility to adapt to its context. For instance you can define a different type of hole for each impacted part of the assembly feature. You can define different diameters and depths for instance that are integrated in the preview panel. With this feature a screw hole in 3 parts can easily and automatically be performed, the first one will be adapted to the screw head and the third one will be threaded and blind.
  
  
• Symmetrical sub-assemblies
  Assembly Design gives you the ability to create a symmetrical sub-assembly to a defined plan. Thanks to this powerful associative feature, you can use a "true" symmetry (e.g. for car wing) or a "fake" symmetry (e.g. for wheels) to create symmetrical sub-assembly. Besides the symmetrical sub-assembly is associative in shape and position which gives much more design productivity.
  
  
• Flexible sub-Assemblies to dynamically unlink product structure and mechanical behavior
  A component in the product structure necessarily defined a rigid element regarding the update in Assembly Design. Flexible Sub-Assembly gives you the ability to dynamically unlink product structure and mechanical behavior (update, compass manipulation, scene: each component of a soft sub-assembly can be moved individually in the parent assembly. Additionally, several instances of a same sub-product can be overloaded independently in a product to manage different internal positions of the sub-component. You also have the ability to overload on a constraint instance according to its value, activity parameter and driving-driven status.
  
  
• Independent structure and parts representations
  ASD manages the resolution of links between assembly files or between an assembly file and a representation file. This allows you to easily move from a configuration involving in-work designs to another involving released designs. This way, the system can fully match the customer methodology and design process.
  
  
• BOM Generation
  Exploded views of Bill of Materials (BOMs) can be generated using ASD Version 5's interactive generation capabilities, in textual or HTML format.
  
  
• STEP file exchange
  Assembly structure definitions can be exchanged in a native STEP AP203 format, facilitating exchanges between designers in an extended enterprise.