What is a CATDrawing file?
CATDrawing is the drawing document of CATIA V5, the CAD system developed by Dassault Systèmes. A drawing usually contains one or more sheets, each holding several views of a 3D model, such as front, section, detail or auxiliary views, together with dimensions, tolerances, title block data, tables such as bills of materials, and other annotations.
CATDrawing files keep associative links to the 3D geometry they document, typically CATPart and CATProduct files, so that the drawing can be updated when the model changes. The format is proprietary binary and tied to specific CATIA V5 releases.
How is a CATDrawing file organized?
| Element | Description |
| Sheets | Pages of the drawing, with a size, orientation, format and drafting standard |
| Views | Projections, sections and details of the 3D model, placed on each sheet |
| Clipping | Optional boundaries that restrict a view to part of the model |
| Annotations | Dimensions, tolerances, notes, symbols and tables |
| Links | Associative references to the CATPart and CATProduct files shown |
| Document properties | Version, source system, modification date and other metadata |
What Is CATDrawing Used For? Applications and Industry Use Cases
CATDrawing files carry the official 2D documentation of products designed in CATIA, which is widely used in aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and industrial equipment. Drawings remain essential for manufacturing, inspection, certification and communication with suppliers, even in model-based organizations.
For software developers, reading CATDrawing files lets an application display CATIA drawings without a CATIA installation, for example in viewers, manufacturing tools or supplier collaboration platforms, and convert them for users of 2D CAD systems.
Challenges or Common Pitfalls
A CATDrawing file is closely tied to the 3D files it references. Opening it on its own gives access to what the drawing stores, but not to the linked CATParts, so workflows that need both the drawing and the model must handle the 3D files separately.
Developers also need to be clear about the level of fidelity they need. Displaying sheets, views and notes accurately is a different requirement from extracting editable 2D geometry or structured dimensions and tolerances, and translators do not always provide the latter.
Custom sheet sizes are another detail to watch, since sheet format and standard may not be identifiable when a sheet uses non-standard dimensions.
How Spatial Helps
Our 3D InterOp SDK imports CATIA V5 drawing files through its UConnect interface, without requiring a CATIA license. Drawings are brought in as visualization data that your application can use to render them, including wires, points, meshes and notes, along with document information such as version, source system and modification date. CATDrawing files exported from 3DEXPERIENCE are read the same way.
Since Release 2026 1.0.1, 3D InterOp also reads sheet properties such as height, width, format, standard and orientation, creates a node for each drawing view, and imports view clipping so that only the geometry inside each clipping boundary is kept.
Imported drawing sheets can be exported to DWG or DXF for users of 2D CAD tools. CATDrawing files are imported only; writing them is not supported.