Custom Drafting Standards in 3DEXPERIENCE

While using 3DEXPERIENCE, some companies may find it beneficial to set standards that all users must adhere to. In Drafting, users can manage and configure standards such as ISO, ASNI_ASME, JIS, or custom enterprise-wide standards. These standards define drafting elements like annotation, dimensions, dress-up, etc. In this demonstration, we will show how to create a custom set of standards and how to distribute them as a default option across an enterprise.

We are only focusing on Drafting in this demonstration but keep in mind that these administrative capabilities are also available in other areas of 3DEXPERIENCE such as 2D Layout for 3D Design, 3D Tolerancing and Annotation, and Generative Functional Tolerancing, to name a few.

1. Activate CATCollectionStandard

In order to access your Standard Resources, you must first tell 3DEPXERIENCE where to look for and store them. You can do this by using the Environment Editor.

In order to make changes within the Environment Editor you must run it as an Administrator. To do this, enter “3DEXPERIENCE” into the Windows Search, right click the result, and select “Open file location”. Once there, open the Tools folder, right click Environment Editor and select “Run as Administrator”.

Edit the Variable called CATCollectionStandard by right clicking and selecting “Edit Variable”. Enter the following variable in the Variable Editor:

C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421win_b64resourcesstandard

(NOTE: the < C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421> portion of this path is the default install path for 3DX. If you chose a different path at install, you must use that instead).

This Variable tells 3DEXPERIENCE to look for Standards in this area as well as store them.

(NOTE: if you are using the On Cloud version, you will enter in the same variable EXCEPT “B421” will be “B421_Cloud”)

2. Create a Custom Standards File

Navigate to C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421win_b64resourcesstandarddrafting. Once there, make a copy of one of the following files to the same location and rename it to a name of your choosing. For this example, we renamed the file to “InFlow Standards.xml”.

• ANSI-ASME.xml
• ISO.xml
• JIS.xml

3. Customize Standards File

Open the 3DEXPERIENCE NativeApps. The Native Apps is the authoring portion of your 3DX and physically installed on your machine.

Ensure you are logged in as and Owner. This can be done through the login prompt or through the menu that displays your Collaborative Space.

Go to Preferences>Standards from your Menu.

Check to make sure the Standards xml files show in the “drafting” Category. If you do not see these files, the steps included in “1. Activate CATCollectionStandard” must be redone to ensure it was executed correctly.

From here, select the Standard File you copy/pasted/renamed.  You can now specify which Standards you want to use for this file. After any changes, clicking “OK” will save these updated Standards.

At this point, you may deploy this throughout your company as an optional Standard. To do so, you will need to take a copy of this Standards file and paste it into C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421win_b64resourcesstandarddrafting for every user that wishes to use them. (NOTE: the < C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421> portion of this path is the default install path for 3DX. If you chose a different path at install, you must use that instead).

To universally apply your new Standard as a default, proceed to the next step.

4. ROLLING OUT STANDARDS UNIVERSALLY

If not already done, log in to 3DX as an Owner for the Collaborative Space you want your Standard to be applied to.

Launch Data Setup from the north quadrant of the compass (this app is only available with certain licenses. Please check with your Sales Rep if you do not have it).

Right mouse click on Standard resources and select “Create a new Resource Table”.

Name the new Resource Set/Table to a Title of your liking.

Find the intersecting cell for the Resource column & the Drawing and 3D Annotations row. Right click and select “Choose the assigned resource”.

Choose “Import from File” and choose your customized .xml file from C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421win_b64resourcesstandarddrafting. (NOTE: the < C:Program FilesDassault SystemesB421> portion of this path is the default install path for 3DX. If you chose a different path at install, you must use that instead).

Name the Engineering Document to a Title of your liking and confirm the import.

The Resource Table should look like this. If everything looks good, proceed by selecting “OK”.

Make sure to Save your new Resource Table at this point by using Crtl+s. You will get errors later in this process if this step is skipped.

Drag the newly created Resource Table to the Collaborative Space you logged in under.

Right click your Resource Table and select “Deploy the server Business Rules”.

If the following message is displayed, you have done the process correctly.

However, if you get the following error message instead, it means you did not commit your Resource Table to the Database. Do this by clicking anywhere on the 3EXPERIENCE GUI to make the error message go away, use “Crtl+s” to save, and retry the Deployment.

At this point, you will need to restart your 3DX session to check if the Resource Table was applied as the Standard and to start using it.

Checking back in your Standards menu, you will now see that the Standards file you created is now the only option for this Collaborative Space and will be applied by default.