Profile Creation Tool-bar

Most of the Computer Aided Design programs containing several tools and icons that make drawing more easy and flexibility, in this cad course we will get familiar with Profile Tool-bar that used to generate wireframe drawing with sketcher. The Profile tool-bar contains eight groups of icons each group contains its own drawing tools that make drawing easier.
In this drawing lesson we will talk about the first two groups ( draw a profile consisting of arcs and lines, and predefined profiles) and in the next drawing lessons we will talk about the others groups.

    The Profile Tool-bar                                                        

In the previous CAD lessons we have provided you a general introduction about sketcher workbench  tool-bars and icons, which are (Constraints, Profile Creation tool-bar, Operations tool-bar, and The Sketch Tools tool-bar)  but now we will explain Profile Creation Tool-bar separately and in more depth.

 1  To draw a profile consisting of arcs and lines.
 2  To draw predefined profiles.

 3  To draw arcs and circles.
 4  To draw 2D Splines.

 5  To draw Conical shapes.
 6  To draw lines.

 7  To draw an axis line.
 8  To draw Points.

 1  The Profile Icon                                                              

 We can used this icon to draw a profile consisting of arcs and lines. When choosing this icon the drawing tools tool-bar changes to show more options. now you can start drawing an arc or line but, By default the first element will be a Line as evidenced by the icon being highlighted in the tool-bar.
If we choose the automatic dimensions constraint, we can create or draw profile by two methods:

1. The first method is by entering the coordinates of the line in the coordinate fields, that shown in the figure below, firstly enter the start point followed by the Enter Key and then enter the end point then press on the Enter Key, After that you should see on the screen the start point and the end point in addition to the constraint values.
2. The second way is the easier method to generate or drawing geometry. which is just by click on the sketch plane to suggest the start point and the end point, but in this way no constraints will be produced, although they can be added at any time.

Now to determine the profile, you need to indicate the end point of the line, so by using the mouse clicks click on the sketch plane, and note that the angle and length of the line is shown on the sketch tools tool-bar.

To draw a tangent arc:

1. From the sketch tools tool-bar choose the Tangent Arc icon and click  on the drawing surface to indicate the end of the arc.
2. By using mouse, click and pull the pointer In the direction that you want to show the arc, then free the button and the sketch tool will transform to draw tangent arc mode. Now you must press on the drawing plane to indicate the end of the arc. and note that if the geometric constraints are active the arc will turn green or blue if you used the old version from CATIA.

Note that the radius field is automatically displayed on the sketch tools tool-bar and you can enter the radius directly on it.

When you finish drawing arc, the insert line mode will appear again, and you can note the line length field is displayed on the sketch tools tool-bar again, Then by using the left mouse button you can determine the end point of the line.

Now to close your drawing or your profile click and pull from the end of the line to the start of the first line and note that the sketch tools tool-bar will switch to insert arc mode and a solid green dot will appear (blue dot in the old version) which mean that the end of the arc will apply to the start of the line.

Starting your drawing  by a three point Arc:

You can use the following method To start the your drawing with a arc instead of a line:

1. Choose the Profile icon then click on the sketch plane to refer to start point of the arc and then from sketch tools tool-bar click on the insert three point arc icon.

2. Click on the sketch plane again to indicate the second point

3. Finally, click again  to refer to the endpoint of the arc.

Now the insert line mode will appear again in the sketch tools tool-bar.

Note that we cannot be generated a complete circles using this icon.

 2   Pre-Defined Profiles                                                               

ِAs we know the CATIA V5 sketcher workbench containing four major Tool-bars,  profile creation toolbar is one of them and it is containing eight groups of icons, now we will talk about the second group which is pre-defined profile.

Seven icons are used in the creation of pre-defined profiles, and We'll talk about each one of them separately.

 1  To draw a Rectangle.

 2  To draw Oriented Rectangle.

 3  To draw Parallelogram.

 4  To draw Elongated Hole.

 5  To draw Cylindrical Elongated Hole.

 6  To draw Keyhole Profile.

 7  To draw Hexagon.

Draw rectangle using locations or 2 points:

By using left mouse button click on the sketch plane to indicate the first point of the rectangle after that click again to indicate the diagonally opposite point.

Draw an Orientated Rectangle by using 3 points:

Firstly we must draw the first side, by using MB1 click on the sketch plane to indicate the first point (corner) after that click to indicate the second point (corner), then Click for the last time to indicate the diagonally opposite point.