Introduction to Catia

Catia is an acronym for - Computer-aided three dimensional interactive application. It was formerly known as CATI (Conception assistée tridimensionnelle interactive – French for interactive aided three-dimensional design) and began as an in-house project by Dassault Aviation in France for the development of Mirage fighter jet. The software was found to be quite useful and was hence marketed and commercialised by Dassault through its own subsidiary. IBM joined later (in 1981) to become a non-exclusive seller of the software.

It is a software that not only enables the user to model rich and complex designs, the software can also be used for validation and for running simulation of all sorts. The software finds application in mechanical industries and is also used widely in other fields like electrical, automotive, aeronautical engineering. Infact, it's considered an industry standard when it comes to surfacing. While there are many other softwares like Solidworks, NX etc. and they are widely used too, no software comes close to Catia when it comes to creating surfaces which can be directly utilised for creating tooling or end product generation. It's an application that even helps with manufacturing and can be used for creating CNC code for tool path movement. So basically, it offers an end-to-end solution for product creation. It has three platforms (P1, P2 & P3) on offer and is a scalable solution that's suited for all sorts of industries. I am working with Catia V5 R21 at the moment. V5 refers to the version of Catia, and R21, refers to the minor release.