NH 2026-09-08

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Welcome to 3DEXPERIENCE Technical Practices!
In this section, you will explore a use case demonstrating how to use modules in your design.

The Modules and Interface commands in CATIA enable designers to create self-contained, encapsulated design units that promote reusability, organization, and semantic connectivity between components. By using modules, teams can efficiently manage design alternatives within a single 3D part, reducing errors and streamlining modifications. Interfaces ensure clear and meaningful connections between modules, fostering collaboration and allowing changes in one module to propagate seamlessly to others. This structured approach enhances design clarity, minimizes rework, and optimizes the management of complex projects.

Modules and Interfaces rely on modularity (reusable design components), semantic connectivity (structured interactions between components), design alternative management (rapid edits with fewer errors), and collaboration (synchronized changes across modules). This enhances clarity, scalability, and precision in complex projects.

The Modules & Interface feature is available if you have one of the following roles:

Mechanical Designers, Conceptual Designers, Mechanical Surface Designers

Types of Modules

The modules are classified into types based on their content. There are rules for the type of content that is allowed in these modules.

There are three types of modules:

Structure module: A module that contains submodules. You can’t insert geometric or parametric features in this type of module.
Geometry module: A module that contains geometric or parametric features (including their sets). You can’t insert submodules in this type of module.
Undefined module: An empty module without any content. The type of the first content inserted in this module defines it as a structure module or geometry module.

All the types of modules contain a positioning axis and can contain the interfaces (input and output).

You cannot connect an input interface with an output interface of the same module.

Use Case: Smarter Reuse for Robust Design Workflows

Scenario: In a design process, when you are working on a complex part or assembly with repeating feature clusters, managing multiple instances manually becomes time-consuming and error-prone. Any design change requires updating each instance separately, leading to inconsistencies across the model.

Here, with the help of Modules and Interfaces in CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE, you can package those feature clusters into named, reusable modules with formally defined inputs and outputs, allowing a single change to propagate automatically across all instances.

Play the video to watch how to create the structure modules and the geometrical module within them.

Play the video to watch how to create the modules and interfaces.

To learn more about Modules and Interfaces, you can refer Explore the Mechanical and Shape Engineer Role Learning Module.