C AT I A V 5 # D E S I G N # T I P S & T R I C K S S E R I E S | 2 years ago

Understanding Boolean
Operations in CATIA V5
By S AT YA R A N J A N D O L A I

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Boolean operation is an important feature in CATIA V5. Types of Boolean

operations include Assemble, Add, Remove, Intersect, Union Trim, and

Remove Lump.

Assemble

The Assemble command basically works considering the polarity of the

solid bodies. One may be interested to know what actually is the polarity

a body. In simple words, it can be said that whenever a new body is create

using material formation like pad, shaft and rib or multi-section solid, the

that body can be considered as positive polar body. Pocket, groove, slot an

remove multi-section solid is considered as negative polar body.

A part body is created as a rectangular block and Body-1 as a solid cylind

as shown below. Consider this Body-1 as positive polar body as it is creat

using pad command and intersects with part body. Now if we use Assembl
Boolean operation, then this cylinder will join the rectangular part body a

will act as a single body.

Now again Body-2 is being created as a rectangular block and is consider

as negative polar body because pocket command is used. Whenever Body-

is assembled with rectangular part body, it will go for material removal in

intersected area due to the selection of negative polar body.

Add
Add operation removes only the intersected portion between two bodies so

that both parts act as a single body irrespective of the polarity of the

bodies. Here, the bodies may be with positive polarity or negative polarity

or a combination of both.

Remove

Remove operation removes the selected body first and then is merged with

the second body irrespective of the polarity of the bodies. Below is an

example on how to create Housing using Add and Remove Boolean

operation.
Intersect

To derive a single body from two different bodies, Intersect Boolean

operation is used. Basically, the intersected portion is the output which is

displayed as a single body. There is no effect of polar bodies here.

In the above example, there are two sketches intersecting each other in the

first picture. In the second picture, pad is created on both sides with a

certain limit. After using Intersect Boolean operation, the result shows on

the common portion which can be seen in third picture.

Union Trim
Unwanted material can be removed from any two bodies by using Union

Trim operation which results in a single desired body.

Consider the example below:

In Model Tree, it can be seen that one rectangular body is intersecting wit

another circular body and the unwanted intersected area needs to be

trimmed. After clicking on Union Trim, it gives an option to the user to

keep/remove any face. After selecting the shape to be removed, the result

can be seen as below:

Remove Lump

Remove Lump Boolean operation removes the lump inside the body.

During the operation, a tab will give the option to the user to keep/remove

any face as required. Using this Boolean operation, a user can remove N

number of lump face areas.

Below is an example of creating a lump first by using Remove Boolean

operation and then using Remove Lump Boolean operation, it is shown ho

a lump can be removed.

The image below shows Remove Lump definition tab which allows to

choose the particular faces. After selecting the face, result is generated.
For a stable design where design features are interlinked, Boolean operati

may be a good operation to go with. After all, design aspect is important a

it shows how a designer wants to edit a design in later stages through

Boolean operations and allow to modify the particular part where designer

wants to modify the part and not the complete body. For product

benchmarking where few parameters are changing, changing the particular

body can be a timesaver.

Satya Ranjan Dolai

Mr. Satya has an experience of 8 years in the field of
automotive product design and validation using multiple CA
tools like CATIA, SOLIDWORKS etc. He has worked on
PLM tools like SAP PDM, SAP APM and SAP ECM. He is
with EDS Technologies working as Application Support
Engineer and provides technical support and trainings to
customers on CATIA.