About Standards

Standards are defined by your administrator in XML (EXtensible Markup Language) files and let you set default values for element properties. You can customize standards afterwards according to your needs provided that you are logged as administrator.

There are two types of standards: default standards provided by Dassault Systèmes and user standards created and managed by the administrator. In both cases, the administrator controls the access to the standard files and can, for instance, prevent users to edit one or more of these files.

For detailed information about standards which are specific to a workbench, see the documentation of interest.

Default Standards

Default standards provided by Dassault Systèmes can be customized using the interactive standard editor.

For detailed information on each type of standards, you have to refer to the corresponding documentation. These default standards are dispatched in several categories:

General parameters including:


  • Attributes for layers and filters in
    • CATStdLayersAndFilters.xml and CATStdTypeLayerAndFilter.xml for CATParts
    • CATDftStdLayersAndFilters.xml for CATDrawings.
  • Attributes for line thickness in CATStdLineThickness.xml. Note that these attributes are relevant for CATDrawings only.
  • Aerospace SheetMetal Design parameters in AerospaceSheetMetalDesign.xml. For detailed information, see Aerospace SheetMetal Design User's Guide: Administration Tasks.

Drafting parameters: as far as CATDrawings are concerned, the use and administration of their specific standards is detailed in Interactive Drafting User's Guide: Administration.

DXF/DWG Interface parameters: see Data Exchange Interfaces User's Guide: Administration Tasks.

Generative parameters: see Generative Drafting User's Guide: Administration.

Thread parameters: see Part Design User's Guide: Administration: Creating Thread Standards.

As far as default standards are concerned, their file name cannot be modified.

Prior to modifying standards, you must:

  • Set the CATCollectionStandard environment variable to identify the location where your customized standards will be saved. For more information about setting environment variables, see Installation and Deployment Guide: Common Installation and Administration Tools: Managing Environments: Customizing Your Environment.
  • Run V6 in administration mode.

Environment Variables

Standard files are identified by two runtime environment variables which are CATDefaultCollectionStandard and CATCollectionStandard.

Environment variable Description
CATDefaultCollectionStandard Indicates the name and path of the sub-directory (or sub-directories) containing the default standards provided by Dassault Systèmes. This variable is set by default to installation_folder\resources\standard during the installation procedure
CATCollectionStandard Indicates the name and path of the sub-directory (or sub-directories) containing the standards customized by the administrator. This means that you should save your customized standards in these sub-directories

For detailed information about environment variables, see Installation and Deployment Guide: Common Installation and Administration Tools: Managing Environments: What is an Environment?.