Equivalent, Fake or Override Mass in CATIA V5
Although it may not be obvious, there can often be a reason for overriding the default mass of a part in CATIA V5. For example a supplier of a part can only supply you with the mass and no material properties. In order to estimate your BOM mass correctly, the correct mass of a part will be required. Although it is not obvious, the mass of a part in CATIA V5 can actually be “faked”, “overridden” or made “Equivalent”.
CATIA does this by tricking the part into believing that it is only 1m³ in volume and then applies a density, thus tricking the mass into thinking it is the same as the density. The steps are easy:
- Show Parameters from Tools > Options > Infrastructure > Part Infrastructure > Display
- Show Values from Tools > Options > Parameters/Measures
- Import this text file as new parameters
- Set the Inertia measure to display “Equivalent”
- Measure the PART NODE only to view the Equivalent Mass.
The video below shows the process in full.
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