User-Defined Geometry Copies

Sometimes organizations don't have write-access to component features they need to reference as copy geometries. This makes it difficult/impossible for these organizations to publish the geometry they need before copying it. CadActive allows for a workaround for this use case, called the User-Defined Copy.

In the Geometry Copier, select the equipment assembly (where your components are contained) and a target skeleton. Then in the top-right dropdown button, select "Add a User-Defined Copy" (shown below).

From there, Ctrl + click all the datums and surfaces that you want to copy into this skeleton. These can be in many components (our code will sort them by component later). Once you have all the surfaces and datums selected, middle-click. In the below example, we select surfaces from the blue switch on the left designated "SWITCH1" and from the switch to the right of it that wasn't designated.

In the model-tree, you will see each component's placement coordinate system, usually prefixed by "CS-". If you have first designated the assembly component, this will be followed by the unique designation - "SWITCH1" for this example. If you didn't designate the assembly component, the "CS-" will be followed by the corresponding ID Path (see doc here for more info). The external copy geometry created for that unique component will follow with a "ECG-" prefix, followed by the designation or ID Path, and UCG# (User Copied Group). This UCG can contain both datums. On the right side of the Geometry Copier, you will see the components with copied geometry, compound designation, and ID Path.

Below is the skeleton model opened in isolation.