etting up blueprints in Dassault CATIA (V5R15)

1. After downloading your blueprints, you'll have to cut each view individually from the
original document with a picture/photo editing software, and save them as separate pictures
(front view, right view, top view, etc). Though it's not mandatory to have exact dimensions
on all saved pictures (however all view have to be on same dimensions), make sure that all
views are well-centred on their own documents. To cut, you can use a photo editing software
featuring a selection tool, e.g. MSPaint or The Gimp (free).

2. Once done, open CATIA. Then, go on the top left corner, and click on the menu
Start/Démarrer, then select Shape/Forme (third line), and finally click on Sketch Tracer.
This will open a new Assembly Design document called 'Product1'.

3. Make sure you are in Realistic Display Render View/Affichage en mode rendu réaliste
avec texture.
4. In the Design Tree on the left, click on the first top line (by default : Product1).
Then, select the Insert/Insertion menu and click on Insert Part/Insérer Pièce. This will
create a new Part line, under the 'Product1' line, and make appears 3 planes and a Origin.
5. Now it's time to import your blueprints : select (click on) the plane on which you want to
import one of the blueprints, and click on Normal View/Vue Normale; this will make your
view perpendicular to the selected plane.
6. In the right toolbar, click on the icon Create a new immersive sketch/Créer une nouvelle
esquisse immersive.

7. Select your picture in the window. Then, choose Apply cylindrical view/Appliquer une
vue cylindrique and Use a cube/Utiliser un cube. Then click OK.
8. Your picture is now imported. Use rotate green commands (see below) to make origin's
axis match with picture's axis. Use the small filled green marked 'Zoom' (not Size/Taille!) to
adjust size of a blueprint in relation to another blueprint. For the command to be effective,
you must have at least 2 picture imported. Actually, when you doubleclick on a picture to
resize it, the command will resize all other pictures, so each time you import a new picture,
resize it before importing another one. The white 'Off' command lock the view
perpendicularly to the selected picture.
9. Once origin is correctly oriented, move the origin onto the place you want (planes will be
used to draw sketches). When picture is selected, moving your mouse on the edges of the
picture will make appears white arrows : click and drag to move your picture along the plane
normal. Next, repeat steps 5 to 8 to import other views.
Final result:
You can now double-click on the plane you want to draw on. This will open the Part Design
studio. Use the Sketch/Esquisse icon and select a plane to begin drawing on it.

Last thing: when you'll save your work, don't forget that CATIA will save 2 files : - A
.CATPart file, which contains your geometry (shape, scheme), actually all elements created
under the Part Design studio (they're listed in 'Corps Principal', or in another Part Body.
'Corps Principal' is a Part Body). - A .CATProduct file, which contains the CATPart file,
as well as extra parameters, such as your blueprints. Loading a CATProduct file will
automatically load the CATPart file too.
1 : The main file ; its contains all elements. A Product is composed of one or several Parts,
plus optional extra parameters.
2 : A split of the Product, which introduce a Part. This section is a kind of link between the
Product and the Part, as it can contains extra parameters, such as constraints (parallelism,
perpendicularity etc.) between the Product and the Part.
3 : The Part section itself : all tri-dimensional elements of the object you want to draw will be
placed here, via Part Design studio. To have access to Part Design Studio, you can double
click on any element contained in the Part section, either in the screen or in the Design Tree.
You can create several Part Body (Insert/Insertion menu, then Part Body/Corps de Pièce)
that act as layers : they can be hid (right click on it, and select Cacher-Afficher/Hide-
Display) with all element contained in them. To activate a Part Body (creating in it) : right
click on it, and select Define Work Object/Définir l'Objet de Travail.
4 : Extra parameters contained in the CATProduct file (here, all blueprints).