CATHIA

CATIA was initially developed for the French aircraft company Dassault. All aircraft since the 1970s have been developed with this program.

CATIA (computer-aided three dimensional interactive application) is a commercial computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering software developed by Dassault Systèmes. The program is developed to provide support from design conception through production and product analysis. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Solaris, IRIX, and HP-UX.

Provides an open architecture for application development or for customizing the program. The application programming interfaces, CAA2 (or CAAV5), can be programmed in Visual Basic and C++.

It was initially developed to serve the aviation industry. Great emphasis has been placed on handling complex surfaces. CATIA is also widely used in the automotive industry for the design and development of body components. Specifically, companies such as the VW Group (Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Škoda), BMW, Renault, Peugeot, Daimler AG, Chrysler, Smart and Porsche make extensive use of the program. The construction industry has also incorporated the use of software to develop buildings of great formal complexity; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Spain, is an architectural landmark that exemplifies the use of this technology.

Today CATIA developers continue to innovate their software. The version of CATIA-V5-6R2019 is under development; a new immersive collaboration experience where teams can collaborate through virtual reality that connects them via "plug and play" (an HTC Vive head-worn display) to immediately jump into a shared VR experience where you can walk around and interact with the product.

History

CATIA was developed in 1971 in-house by the French aircraft producer Avions Marcel Dassault, at that time CADAM software customers used CATIA to develop the Mirage fighter jet. Later he was employed in the aerospace, automobile, shipbuilding, and other industries.

Initially called CATI (Conception assistée tridimensionnelle interactive- French for Interactive and Assisted Design in Three Dimensions), it was renamed CATIA in 1981 when Dassault created a subsidiary to develop and sell the software and signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement. with IBM.

In 1984, The Boeing Company chose CATIA v2 as its main 3D CAD tool, becoming its longest-standing customer.

In 1988, CATIA v3 was ported from the mainframe to a portable operating system (UNIX).

In 1990, the General Dynamics Electric Boat Corporation established, along with Boeing, CATIA as their primary 3D CAD tool for designing the US Navy ship Virginia class submarine. Additionally, Lockheed had been selling its CADAM system worldwide through the IBM channel since 1978.

In 1992, CADAM was sold from IBM, and the following year CATIA CADAM V4 was released.

In 1996, it was ported from one to four Unix operating systems, including IBM AIX, Silicon Graphics IRIX, Sun Microsystems SunOS, and Hewlett-Packard HP-UX.

In 1998, V5 was released and was a completely rewritten version of CATIA with support for UNIX, Windows NT and Windows XP (since 2001).

In the years prior to 2000, problems caused by incompatibility between Catia versions (V4 and V5) left $6.1B in additional costs due to years of delays in the Airbus A380 production projects.

In 2008, Dassault Systèmes released CATIA V6. While servers can run on Microsoft Windows, Linux, or AIX, customer support for any non-Microsoft system has been removed.

In November 2010, Dassault Systèmes released CATIA V6R2011x, the latest release of its PLM2.0 platform, while continuing to fund and enhance its CATIA V5 software.

In June 2011, Dassault Systèmes released V6 R2012.

In 2012, Dassault Systèmes released V6 2013x.

In 2014, Dassault Systèmes released 3DEXPERIENCE Platform R2014x and CATIA en la Nube, a cloud version of its software.

Release dates

Industry

CATIA can be applied to a wide variety of industries, from aerospace and defense, automotive, and industrial equipment, to high technology, shipbuilding, consumer goods, plant design, consumer goods packaging, life sciences, architecture and construction, energy and oil generation processes; and services. CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, NX, and Dassault Systèmes are the dominant systems on the SolidWorks platform.

Aerospace

The Boeing Company used CATIA V3 to develop its 777 commercial airliner and CATIA V5 for the 787 aircraft series. The company contracts for the full range of 3D design products from Dassault Systèmes- CATIA, DELMIA, and ENOVIA LCA- used for the development of Boeing applications.

Many companies besides Boeing use CATIA, of which the following should be highlighted: Airbus, BAE Systems, Embraer, FNSS, Vought, AgustaWestland, Dassault Aviation…

Automotive

Many automobile companies use CATIA to varying degrees, including BMW, Porsche, McLaren Automotive, Chrysler, Honda, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley Motors Limited, Volvo, Fiat, Benteler International, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault, Toyota, Ford, Scania, Hyundai, Tesla Motors, Rolls-Royce Motors, Valmet Automotive, Proton, Elba, Tata motors and Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. Goodyear uses it to make automotive and aircraft tires and also uses a custom CATIA for its design and development.

Many car companies use CATIA for the structure of cars. Bombardier Transportation (Canadian rail equipment sales and manufacturing company) is using this software to design its entire fleet of train engines and passenger cars. Webasto uses CATIA to design its roof.

Shipbuilding

Dassault Systèmes has started to be used by shipbuilders with the release of CATIA V5 Edition 8, which includes special features that are very useful for shipbuilders. GD Electric Boat uses CATIA to design the latest model of the United States Navy's fast attack submarine, the Virginia-class Submarine. Newport News Shipbuildings also uses CATIA to design the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier for the US Navy. In 2004, the Beneteau Group (a company that sells sails and ship engines) began using CATIA for the development of new engines for sailing and leisure boats.

Industrial Equipment

CATIA has a strong presence in the Industrial Equipment industry. Manufacturing companies like Schuler and Metso use CATIA, as do heavy machinery companies like Claas, and also various industrial equipment product companies like Alstom and ABB. Other companies, such as Michelin, also use it in their production.

High technologies

Some of the high tech companies are using CATIA to design their products. An example of such companies are: Nokia, Nikon, Pegatron (Taiwanese electronics company)...

Energy, processing and utilities

Suzlon Energy uses CATIA to manufacture turbine blades. On the other hand, Gamesa uses it to design and manufacture wind turbines.

Consumer Products and Retail

Procter & Gamble optimizes its packaging by using CATIA.

Example modeling in CATIA

Architecture

Architect Frank Gehry has used the software for his award-winning curvilinear buildings. The branch of him dedicated to technology, has been developing a software based on CATIA V5 called Digital Project. This project competes to be the number one in the market with Graphisoft's ARCHICAD, Revit, Bentley Systems and other building information modeling applications.

Scope of application

Commonly referred to as a software package referring to the treatment of the product life cycle in 3D, CATIA appears in multiple stages of product development (CAx), including conceptualization, design (CAD), engineering (CAE) and production (CAM). CATIA facilitates collaboration with engineering through the disciplines of 3D Experience Platforms (3DEXPERIENCE), which include aspects of new surfaces and designs, design of fluid and electronic systems, mechanical engineering and systems engineering.

CATIA facilitates the design of electronic, electrical and distribution systems such as HVAC systems.

Mechanical Engineering

CATIA enables the creation of 3D parts, 2D sketches, sheet metal, composite materials, molded, forged or tool parts until the definition of their mechanical assembly. The software provides advanced technology for surface machining and BIW. It provides tools to complete product definitions, including functional tolerances as well as kinematic definitions. CATIA provides a wide range of applications for tooling design. In the case of aerospace engineering, a new module is included that offers users a combination of laminate design generation capabilities and surface designs.

Design

CATIA offers a solution to facilitate the work and visualization process to create, modify, and validate complex and innovative shapes for industrial design. CATIA appears at multiple stages of product design from its first sketches or from 2D sketches.

Systems Engineering

CATIA's systems engineering solution delivers a single, open and extensible development (engineering) systems platform that fully integrates the multidisciplinary area of modeling, simulation, verification and business process support required for develop complex cyber-physical products. This enables organizations to evaluate change proposals, or develop new product or system variants using a unified performance based systems engineering approach. The solution addresses model-based systems engineering (MBSE), which requires users to develop today's intelligent products and systems, and comprises the following elements: Requirements Engineering, Modeling of Systems Architecture, Modeling of Behavior and Simulation Systems, Configuration Management and Life Cycle Traceability, Development of Embedded Automotive Systems (AUTOSAR Constructor) and Development of Industrial Automation Systems (ControlBuild).

CATIA makes use of an open language known as "Modelica" in both CATIA Dynamic Behavior Modeling and Dymola for quick and easy modeling to simulate complexes that span multiple engineering disciplines. CATIA and Dymola are widespread thanks to the availability of a large number of industries and the mastery of specific libraries of the Modelica complex language that allow the user to model and simulate a wide range of complex systems (ranging from automotive vehicle dynamics to vehicle dynamics). aircraft flight).

Electrical systems

CATIA V5 offers a solution to develop the design and production of electrical systems that cover the complete process from conceptual design to production. With this version of CATIA you can easily create cable harnesses by drawing them directly in 3D. It also allows you to create the different pieces and join them with the created cable harnesses.

Fluid systems

CATIA provides a solution to facilitate the design and production of distribution systems, including sections of pipes (pipes), ductwork, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). CATIA capabilities for this aspect include 2D diagrams for hydraulics, pneumatics, HVAC systems, as well as Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID). It also has greater capabilities that allow these 2D diagrams to interact with the route planning and placement of system components, in the context of digitally making a scale model of the complete process or production plant, from the distribution of production information including reviews and isometric pipeline plans.

CATIA V4/V5/V6 Conversion and File Compatibility

Dassault Systèmes provides tools to convert CATIA V4 files so that they are accessible by newer versions of CATIA V5 and V6. However, some cases show that there may be problems in data conversion from CATIA V4 to CATIAV5 due to differences in the geometric conversion modeling of both or due to the modeling methods used by the end user. The percentage of such data lost can be minimized by using appropriate pre-conversion cleanup, choosing the most appropriate conversion options, performing pre-cleanup after conversion.

CATIA conversion from versions 4 to 5 have caused problems for Airbus A380s. Those problems left $6.1 billion in additional costs due to years of project delays when it was realized that the wiring was too short to make the connections.

The transition from version V5 to version V6 was easier because they share the same geometric conversion modeling. The third part of the files referring to the translation between versions also convert the CATIA files between the two versions.

Gallery

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  North part of the Eiffel Tower

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  Product concept

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  Rendered made with CATIA

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  Rendering a diamond with CATIA

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  Chassis of a car

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  Analysis of a propeller made with CATIA