Introduction to CATIA CATIA also known as Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application and it is software suit that developed

by the French company call Dassult Systemes. Company such as Siemens NX, Creo Elements/Pro and Autodesk Inventor is competitor of CATIA. The cost of CATIA V5 is about $1,500 per annual seat license. CATIA is a process-centric computer-aided design/computer-assisted manufacturing/computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE) system that fully uses next generation object technologies and leading edge industry standards. CATIA is integrated with Dassault Systems Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions. It allows the users to simulate their industrial design processes from initial concept to product design, analysis, assembly and also maintenance. In this software, it includes mechanical, and shape design, styling, product synthesis, equipment and systems engineering, NC manufacturing, analysis and simulation, and industrial plant design. It is a very user friendly software because CATIA Knowledgeware allows broad communities of user to easily capture and share know-how, rules, and other intellectual property assets. The powerful smart modeling and morphing concepts in CATIA enable the capture and reuse of process specifications and intelligence. In addition, the result is scaleable, web-enabled system that covers all user requirements within the digital extended enterprise, from the simplest design to the most complex processes. This capability allows user to optimize the whole product development process while controlling change propagation. Moreover, CATIA moves beyond traditional parametric or variational approaches, boost up the design process and helping designers, engineers and manufactures to increase the speed and productivity. The application of CATIA is all based on hybrid modeling technology. The applications provide expanded digital product definitions, process definitions, and review functions capable of operating on projects with any degree of design complexity. CATIA also got produce domain-specific applications that have addressed global digital enterprise requirements that span the areas of mock-up, manufacturing, plant, and operations. Besides, CATIA expands scalability across processes, functions, and platforms to deliver the appropriate solution to desktop of each user in product development chain. Tailored solutions needs by broad range of users, from a small supplier shop to a large multinational corporation. As further move on, CATIA is used by designers, manufacturing facilities, assemblers, architects, industrial engineers and more. CATIA plays an important role in design process and is being used by automotive and aerospace industries for automobile and aircraft design and its tooling design. Most commonly, CATIA users include Aerospace, Appliances, Architecture, Automotive, Constructions, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Medical, Furniture, Machinery, Mold and Die, and Shipbuilding industries. One of the big organizations which is using CATIA is NASA. They used CATIA on their various Space Equipments design and also Space Shuttle. The military, working with private industry uses CATIA for jetfighter aircraft, aircraft carriers, helicopters, tanks and various other forms of weaponry.

Following are some of the companies that are using CATIA: Air Bus, Kelsey-Hayes, Boeing, Lear Jet, BMW, Volvo, Black and Decker, Fiat Peugeot, Northrop Grumman Corp, Ferrari, Lockheed Martin, Porsche, Daimler Chrysler, Goodyear, Freightliner Truck, Allied Signal, Sauber Formula, Volkswagen, Pratt Whitney, United Airlines, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and etc. In surfacing and shape design, CATIA provides suite of surfacing, reverse engineering, and visualization solutions in order to create, optimize, modify, and validate complex innovative shape design. For the mechanical engineering point of view, CATIA is good in creating 3D parts from 3D sketches, sheetmetal, composites, molded, forged or tooling parts and lastly up to the mechanical assemblies. It provides tools to complete product definition including functional tolerances, as well as kinematics definition. Plus, in equipment design, CATIA has advantages in design of electronic, electrical as well as distributed system such as fluid and High Voltage Alternating Current (HVAC) systems all the way to the production of documentation for manufacturing. As we look into Aerospace, there are a few examples that aircraft use CATIA for their aircraft manufacture. The Boeing Company used CATIA V3 to develop 777 airliner and CATIA V5 for 787 series aircraft. They even employed the full range of Dassault Systemes 3D PLM products CATIA, DELMIA, and ENOVIA LCA supplemented by Boeing developed applications. Chinese Xian JH-7A is the first aircraft developed by CATIA V5 and the design was completed on September 26, 2000. Automotive companies also broadly use CATIA for their automotive design. Those famous automotive that using CATIA is BMW, Porsche, Audi, Jaguar, Volkswagen, Bentley Motors, Volvo and so on. Goodyear uses CATIA in their tires design. Most of the car companies use CATIA to design for door beams, IP supports, bumper beams, roof rails, side rails, and body components. This is because CATIA is good in surface creation and computer representation of surfaces. Nowadays, CATIA also involve in shipbuilding. Dassault Systems has begun serving shipbuilders includes special features useful to shipbuilders. CATIA also being used by GD Electric Boat to design latest fast attack submarine class for United States Navy, the Virginia class. In 2004, Benetau Group used it for the leisure motor boats design.