ABOUT CATIA

What is CATIA?

CATIA - which stands for Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application - is the most powerful and widely used CAD (computer aided design) software of its kind in the world. CATIA is owned/developed by Dassault Systems of France and until 2010, was marketed worldwide by IBM.

Here's what IBM has to say about CATIA V5, "CATIA Version 5 (V5) is a completely re-engineered, next-generation family of CAD/CAM/CAE software solutions for product lifecycle management from IBM.  It helps you, and companies of all sizes, leverage the benefits of e-business to increase your competitiveness and responsiveness to your customers, and to improve your time to market.

Through its exceptionally easy-to-use state of the art user interface, CATIA Version 5 delivers innovative technologies, for maximum productivity and creativity from product definition through to product in service."

Who uses CATIA?

An easier question to answer might be, who doesn't use CATIA? Look around you. Anything and everything you see had to be designed before it could be manufactured. The pen on your desk, your desk, the chair you're sitting in, your appliances, your automobile, etc. The list is almost endless. Today, nearly all products are designed on computers. Computers are even designed on computers. CATIA plays a major role in the design process. Architects are now using CATIA. The great Guggenheim Museum in Spain, considered an architectural masterpiece, was designed using CATIA.

CATIA is used by the automotive and aerospace industries for automobile and aircraft product and tooling design. There are thousands of companies the world over using CATIA.  For every company that uses CATIA for product design, there are hundreds of suppliers to those companies that also use CATIA. 

CATIA is found in a variety of industries throughout the world. Some of these industries include; Aerospace, Appliances, Architecture, Automotive, Construction, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Medical, Furniture, Machinery, Mold and Die, and Shipbuilding.

CATIA has played a major role in NASA’s design of the Space Shuttle. The military - working with private industry - - uses CATIA for the design of "jet-fighter" aircraft, aircraft carriers, helicopters, tanks and various other forms of weaponry.

Why CATIA? Why not Unigraphics or ProE?

Unigraphics and Pro-E are fine Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs. However, there are more companies - worldwide - using CATIA than all the other CAD programs combined. Therefore, there is more demand for CATIA designers than there are for designers using any other CAD program. If you want to give yourself the best opportunity for to further your career, then CATIA is the right choice.

Why the need for V5?

One answer is competition.  CAD systems like ProE, AutoCAD, and Unigraphics have all "leapfrogged" over CATIA V4 when it comes to the user interface.  CATIA V5 provides a very "slick", Windows-type interface.   This, however, is an oversimplification of a complex issue.  In reality, there are many reasons why the switch to V5 is necessary.