I am collecting a list of common translation errors and suggesting a way to describe translation quality.   

We are currently engaged in a large migration project combining ENOVIA PDM and CATIA V4 migration. The acceptance process of the geometric translation engine between CATIA V4 and SolidWorks is based on evaluating it on a large set of files. For this purpose we need to have a predictable way to describe errors in a short string.

This serves also a list of typical errors encountered while translating geometry. From customers experience it seems that other translators face similar exceptions. Not surprising since translating CATIA V4 files usually involves discovering limited design and enhancing geometry. In some occasion such an encoding could help in software benchmarking.

The list is in the order of decreasing importance. This means that when describing a translation we build a string of all defects found starting with the defect of highest priority. The list is separated by semi-colon “;”. So you get something like “MissFace;Sew;Color”. It is not case sensitive. A single occurrence of a defect causes the string to appear. There is no provision for multiple occurrences because we look for a success rate near to 100%, no need to compromise. Next step is to sort by this quality string and count.

Crash: Obviously this is the most dreaded error. You expect that there is no result at all and that the quality string will simply be “Crash”. Not true some parts could have been already translated before the crash. Crash is really program exit without any RadialSoft dialog box showing up.

Failed: This means that the system stopped somewhere with a RadialSoft dialog Box with an error message displayed. As for crash some results could have been produced but the termination was not normal.

MissPart: a part or a sub assembly is missing. This is a major error because since it s missing it can as well hide an important error.

 MissFace: A missing face or surface. Even if the result could be healed and turned into a body, the geometry is wrong, however very small faces may disappear without impacting the resulting geometry. It has to be appreciated visually. There is no one to one correspondence between input faces and output faces. Some are merged, some are split.

NotABody: the resulting part is not made of a body. With SolidWorks we expect an “Imported body” feature. If we don’t have such a feature we get one or more surfaces.

Hole: some faces have not be well translated resulting in a hole in the output.

Gap: Some gaps are found in the result.

Twist: Some kind of twist occurred and faces are stitched on the wrong side or twist in the interior of a face. Distorted geometry will also fit here.

Periodic: Issues related to periodic surfaces. Usually wrong side of a face is taken, or borders are truncated, self intersecting. This is a diagnostic flag mostly used by us and based on an inspection using the viewer.

Empty: Result is empty. It is quite rare.

Orient: A part is badly placed in the assembly. It is quite rare.

Extra: Some extraneous geometry was produced. It is typical that extra workspaces or hidden layers are translated as well. They can be seen when the assembly ending with ROOT is opened. If they are visible when opening the file corresponding exactly to the input file (it could be a part or an assembly) and it is not desired than it is an error. It could happen also with an extra face or surface.

Color: Output color is not corresponding to input color. This includes cases where some faces carry a different color and the corresponding faces don’t match them.

Attr: Some attributes like “jele” are not available on the target model.

Errors: some errors are listed in the dialog box. The process was not stopped and if there is no visible error on the result it could be minor.

Warnings: Some warnings where displayed. Typically precision overflow, continuity in input data.

Log: Log is wrong or some information is missing.

Badmodel: This means the input file was not proper because it didn’t contain any supported entity.

CorruptInput: Input file is corrupted.