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CATIA (Computer Aided Three dimensional Interactive Application) is a multi-platform PLM/CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed world-wide by IBM. The software was originally intended for the development of Dassault's Mirage fighter jet, but became a runaway success & was subsequently adopted by numerous well known companies world-wide such as Boeing & IBM. The software was also famously used by Architect Frank Gehry in his building of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. CATIA is written in the C++ programming language.
History
CATIA started as an in-house development by French aircraft manufacturer Avion Marcel Dassault, at that time customer of the CADAM CAD software.
The software name was initially CATI (Conception Assistée Tridimensionnelle Interactive - French for Interactive Aided Three Dimensional Design ), but was renamed to CATIA in 1981. At that time Dassault created a subsidiary responsible for the software development and marketing, and finalized a non exclusive distribution agreement with IBM.
In 1984, the Boeing Company chose CATIA as its main 3D CAD tool, making it the largest customer.
In 1988, with version 3, CATIA was ported from the Mainframe to the UNIX platform.
In 1992 CADAM was purchased from IBM and the next year CATIA CADAM v4 was published. Subsequently in 1996 CATIA V4 was ported from one to four Unix operating systems, including IBM AIX, Silicon Graphics IRIX, Sun Microsystem SunOS and Hewlett-Packard HP-UX.
In 1998, an entirely rewritten version of CATIA, CATIA V5 was released, with support for both UNIX and Windows NT.
Features and Capabilities
Commonly referred to as a 3D Product Lifecycle Management software suite, CATIA supports multiple stages of product development (CAx). The stages range from conceptualization, through design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM), until analysis (CAE).
CATIA provides an open development architecture through the use of interfaces, which can be used to customize or develop applications. The application programming interfaces supported are as follows:
The Fortran and C programming languages for version 4 (V4).
The Visual Basic and C++ programming languages for version 5 (V5).
These APIs are referred to as CAA for V4 and CAA2 (or CAA V5) for V5. The CAA2 are component object model (COM) based interfaces. They provide integration for products developed on the CATIA suite of software.
Although later versions of CATIA V4 implemented NURBS, version 4 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.
As of 2007, the latest release is V5 release 18 (V5R18).
One of the main reasons customers choose CATIA V5 is its ability to seamlessly interact and work in tandem with a host of other applications like Enovia, Smarteam, various CAE Analysis applications etc.
Supported Operating Systems & Platforms
CATIA V4 is supported for various flavours of Unix - IBM AIX, Hewlett Packard HP-UX, Silicon Graphics IRIX and Sun Microsystems Solaris. Catia V4 and its predecessor versions were also available for IBM MVS and VM/CMS mainframe platforms.
CATIA V5 is provided on the Microsoft Windows platform and, without the facility to use Visual Basic additions, on the above-mentioned Unixes.
Notable Industries using CATIA
CATIA is widely used throughout the engineering industry, especially in the automotive and aerospace sectors. In this industry CATIA V4, CATIA V5, Pro/ENGINEER, NX, and SolidWorks are the dominant systems. Dassault Systemes has expanded its reach into the Shipbuilding Domain with CATIA V5 release 8, which includes additional functionality serving ship builder needs.
The Boeing Company used CATIA V3 to develop its 777 airliner, and is currently using CATIA V5 for the 787 series aircraft. They have employed the full range of Dassault Systemes' 3D PLM products, comprised of CATIA, DELMIA, and ENOVIA, supplemented by Boeing developed applications. European aerospace giant Airbus is also using CATIA extensively for its design and development activities. Canadian aircraft manufacturing company Bombardier Aerospace has all its designing done on CATIA.
Automotive companies that use CATIA to varying degrees are BMW, Porsche, Daimler Chrysler, AUDI, Volvo, Fiat, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai, Tata motors and Mahindra. GoodYear uses it in the manufacture of tires for automotive and aerospace and also uses a customized CATIA for its design and development.
GD Electric Boat used CATIA to design the latest fast attack submarine class for the United States Navy, the Virginia class. Northrop Grumman Newport News also used CATIA to design the Gerald R. Ford class of supercarriers for the US Navy.
Outside of those three industries, architect Frank Gehry has used the software, through the C3 Smartmodel company, 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, but none have actually been constructed using the new software.
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