CATIA TRAINING

 CATIA (Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application) is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by the French company Dassault Systemes. Written in the C++ programming language, CATIA is the cornerstone of the Dassault Systemes product lifecycle management software suite.

 

Scope of application

 

                 Commonly referred to as 3D Product Lifecycle Management software suite, CATIA supports multiple stages of product development (CAx), from conceptualization, design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and engineering (CAE). CATIA facilitates collaborative engineering across disciplines, including surfacing & shape design, mechanical engineering, equipment and systems engineering.

 

                    CATIA provides a suite of surfacing, reverse engineering, and visualization solutions to create, modify, and validate complex innovative shapes. From subdivision, styling, and Class A surfaces to mechanical functional surfaces.

 

                   CATIA enables the creation of 3D parts, from 3D sketches, sheetmetal, composites, molded, forged or tooling parts up to the definition of mechanical assemblies. It provides tools to complete product definition, including functional tolerances, as well as kinematics definition.

 

                   CATIA facilitates the design of electronic, electrical as well as distributed systems such as fluid and HVAC systems, all the way to the production of documentation for manufacturing.

 

Systems engineering

 

                 CATIA offers a solution to model complex and intelligent products through the systems engineering approach. It covers the requirements definition, the systems architecture, the behavior modeling and the virtual product or embedded software generation. CATIA can be customized via application programming interfaces (API). CATIA V5 & V6 can be adapted using Visual Basic and C++ programming languages via CAA (Component Application Architecture); a component object model (COM)-like interface.

 

                   Although later versions of CATIA V4 implemented NURBS, V4 principally used piecewise polynomial surfaces. CATIA V4 uses a non-manifold solid engine.

Catia V5 features a parametric solid/surface-based package which uses NURBS as the core surface representation and has several workbenches that provide KBE support.

V5 can work with other applications, including Enovia, Smarteam, and various CAE Analysis applications.

 

Industries

 

                 CATIA can be applied to a wide variety of industries, from aerospace and defense, automotive, and industrial equipment, to high tech, shipbuilding, consumer goods, plant design, consumer packaged goods, life sciences, architecture and construction, process power and petroleum, and services. CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, NX (formerly Unigraphics), and SolidWorks are the dominant systems.

 

Aerospace 

• The Boeing Company used CATIA V3 to develop its 777 airliner, and used CATIA V5 for the 787 series aircraft. They have employed the full range of Dassault Systemes' 3D PLM products — CATIA, DELMIA, and ENOVIA LCA — supplemented by Boeing developed applications.

• The development of the Indian Light Combat Aircraft has been using CATIA V5.

• Chinese Xian JH-7A is the first aircraft developed by CATIA V5, when the design was completed on September 26, 2000.

• European aerospace giant Airbus has been using CATIA since 2001.

• Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Aerospace has done all of its aircraft design on CATIA.

• The Brazilian aircraft company, EMBRAER, use Catia V4 and V5 to build all airplanes.

• Vought Aircraft Industries use CATIA V4 and V5 to produce its parts.

• The Anglo/Italian Helicopter Company, AgustaWestland, use CATIA V4 and V5 to design their full range of aircraft.

• The main supplier of helicopters to the U.S Military forces, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., uses CATIA as well.

• Bell Helicopter, the creator of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, has used CATIA V4, V5, and now V6.

Automotive

 

             Many automotive companies use CATIA to varying degrees, including BMW[citation needed], Porsche, Daimler AG, Chrysler, Honda, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley Motors Limited, Volvo, Fiat, Benteler International, PSA Peugeot Citroën[citation needed], Renault[citation needed], Toyota,Ford, Scania, Hyundai, Skoda Auto, Tesla Motors, Valmet Automotive, Proton, Tata motors and Mahindra & Mahindra Limited.

 

               Goodyear uses it in making tires for automotive and aerospace  and also uses a customized CATIA for its design and development .Many automotive companies use CATIA for car structures — door beams, IP supports, bumper beams, roof rails, side rails, body components — because CATIA is very good in surface creation and Computer representation of surfaces. Bombardier Transportation, Canada is using this software to design its entire fleet of Train engines and coaches.

 

Shipbuilding

 

              Dassault Systems has begun serving shipbuilders with CATIA V5 release 8, which includes special features useful to shipbuilders. GD Electric Boat used CATIA to design the latest fast attack submarine class for the United States Navy, the Virginia class. Newport News Shipbuilding also used CATIA to design the Gerald R. Ford class of super carriers for the US Navy. In 2004 it has been adopted by the Beneteau Group for development of new sailing and leisure motor boats.

 

Industrial equipment

   

               CATIA has a strong presence in the Industrial Equipment industry. Industrial Manufacturing machinery companies like Schuler and Metso use CATIA, as well as heavy mobile machinery and equipment companies like Claas, and also various industrial equipment product companies like Alstom Power and ABB Group.

 

Other

 

                Architect Frank Gehry has used the software, through the C-Cubed Virtual Architecture company, now Virtual Build Team, to design his award-winning curvilinear buildings. His technology arm, Gehry Technologies, has been developing software based on CATIA V5 named Digital Project. Digital Project has been used to design buildings and has successfully completed a handful of projects.

 

File compatibility and CATIA V4 /V5 /V6 conversion

 

 

 

                  Dassault Systemes provides utilities to convert CATIA V4 data files so they are accessible to CATIA V5 and CATIA V6. Still, cases show that there can be issues in the data conversion from CATIA V4 to V5, from either difference in the geometric kernel between CATIA V4 and CATIA V5, or by the modeling methods employed by end users. Experiment results show that there can be data loss during the conversion (from 0% to 90%). The percentage loss can be minimized by using the appropriate pre-conversion clean-up, choosing the appropriate conversion options, and clean-up activities after conversion. On the other hand, transition from V5 to V6 is facilitated because they are sharing the same geometric kernel. Third-party file translators also up-convert CATIA files between versions.