Here is what one guy had to say about CATIA V5 in the yacht design industry
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Is there anyone using CATIA to design sailboats? If so, why not?
I come from the aeronautical world where it's pretty much a standard - and in the auto industry as well. To me, it's the most complete software that will allow you to do any 3D surface you wish and will let you control it too! (along with solids, etc.. and all the exports you could wish for) It used to be complex and ran only on UNIX platforms, but now there's V5 that runs on Windows, is easier to learn and use, and bonus, is half the cost of ProE ! I've heard of a few places that use UG or ProE, but to me, they're less flexible than CATIA and certainly more expensive. (I've used all three packages for over 10 yrs and have seen a lot of evolution, and CATIA still stands out)
It seems to me the softwares that are dedicated to hull design are just that - hull design. It's inflexible and won't allow you to complete the whole project on the the same software; ie: interiors, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, drafting,etc.. Granted, I've not been exposed to a whole lot of them, but that's what I gather from most of those listed in this forum.
CATIA is also great to get the physical properties out of the design - and macros can be easily written (visual basic) to automate most tedious calcs (cp, displ, clr, etc...). So it wouldn't be to hard to include an hydrostatic module either - and it will talk with most CFD and Structural analysis packages.
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If you looking for CATIA support, News, Training or Sales in South Africa please visit www.cdcza.co.za
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Is there anyone using CATIA to design sailboats? If so, why not?
I come from the aeronautical world where it's pretty much a standard - and in the auto industry as well. To me, it's the most complete software that will allow you to do any 3D surface you wish and will let you control it too! (along with solids, etc.. and all the exports you could wish for) It used to be complex and ran only on UNIX platforms, but now there's V5 that runs on Windows, is easier to learn and use, and bonus, is half the cost of ProE ! I've heard of a few places that use UG or ProE, but to me, they're less flexible than CATIA and certainly more expensive. (I've used all three packages for over 10 yrs and have seen a lot of evolution, and CATIA still stands out)
It seems to me the softwares that are dedicated to hull design are just that - hull design. It's inflexible and won't allow you to complete the whole project on the the same software; ie: interiors, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, drafting,etc.. Granted, I've not been exposed to a whole lot of them, but that's what I gather from most of those listed in this forum.
CATIA is also great to get the physical properties out of the design - and macros can be easily written (visual basic) to automate most tedious calcs (cp, displ, clr, etc...). So it wouldn't be to hard to include an hydrostatic module either - and it will talk with most CFD and Structural analysis packages.
------------------------------------------------------------
If you looking for CATIA support, News, Training or Sales in South Africa please visit www.cdcza.co.za