Catia V5 info

[Mgrenier]

Hello all,

 

The company I am working here is looking into buying Catia because we would like to expand to the aerospace side of machining. I was asked to gather information relative to the ease of use and learning curve for both the CAD and CAM side of Catia.

 

All information given is more then welcome.

 

Have a nice day,

[gcode]

search the forum.. there are sevral threads on the subject..

A quick summation.. very powerful..

very very expensive... very very very steep learning curve

[Mgrenier]

Gcode,

 

I did a search and found out that the CAD seems OK but the info on the CAM package is very lean and I need good arguments to the company. I predicted a 6 months learning curve and was told that I was exagerating things up so I came here to see if I was on the right track. Plus is the CAM package only good for 3D machining? How does it behave for simple 2D stuff?

[gcode]

quote:

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I predicted a 6 months learning curve

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6 to 12 months would be more like it.

Catia's CAM side is very powerful and very cumbersome. It will be a couple of years before you are as fast in Catia as you are in Mastercam. You also will spend a fortune on post proccessors. Regular 3axis mill post that are free with Mastercam will cost you $3-5K, 5X mill posts $10-15K.

[gcode]

A lot of shops buy 1 seat of Catia so the salesmen

can tell the customers that they use Catia.

They real work is getting done with Mastercam though.

[crazy^millman]

We have the Basic Catia for the MBD requirements to do Aerospace work. That is all you need. Talk to the guys that work at Boeing on the forum and see what they program with. 6 to 12 months yeah that sounds about right and yes years before you get as well with it as Mastercam. Also that yearly maintenance is about 5x to 10x for Mastercam if you have to get all the modules for 5ax and Mill/Turn. Then you need to go by a post processing software verse getting post for Catia will be cheaper in the long run and that will only probably take 3 to 6 months to learn. So as long as they give you about 2 years to bring it in and transition into it all should be good. They decide that one day everything is switching like the Catia Rep try to make you do hen I would give your company about 3 to 6 months before you go out of business or they go back to Mastercam for programming and realize how much money they wasted.

 

Good luck.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Closer to 12 than 6 though.

 

I've used it and PITA is just the tip of the iceberg with the CAM side.

 

CAD is very powerful as well but is a bit more logical and straightforward, though trimming wireframe is a bit more dificult to master than it is in MasterCAM.

 

JM2C

[gcode]

Of course your bosses will say we're all a bunch of

"can't hack it" Mastercam guys and take the

very objective advice of a

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Catia salesman

 

good luck

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

ROFL @ gcode.

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

There's some VERY specific stuff that you can put in CATIA sales-schmuck's face when/if the time comes.

 

Well it seems since WEBBY decided to clean house, my 1/2 page tirade has gone the way of the dinosaur. But... since I was pissed I scattered my venom and vitriol across a couple forums

 

Linky

[RObert TImby]

I use catia with a fasttrim platform for programming the laser we have here. It a pain sometimes to use because i'm used to using MC, but I get by. It took me about 3 to 4 months to used to using it efficiently, but i will not trade it in for MC. The only thing i like about it, is the norms. When 5x programming the norms tells me what direction the head will to the part it is cutting. The company that sold us Catia is Cenit of NA. Hope this helps.

[bogusmill]

The National Institute for Aviation at Wichita State University is one of the best Catia training centers in the U.S. I'm in thier machine shop and have taken many courses in cluding prisimatic machining. Catia's machining is very slow and clumsy and $ so we use Mastercam X2. However the majority of our work is designed in Catia so I need to know to use it.

 

Our CAD/CAM guys have been known to go to a business location to train thier employees on thier own turf.

[mowens]

It has taken me about 8 months to get up to speed with Catia V5, even though I used Catia V4 for 15 years. Depending on how you use it, model management is very important, and that alone takes a long time to become effecient. My situation is a little different; some of the tool paths are similart to V4, so I had a harder time with the Cad than the Cam.

[Zoober]

We use Catia and MC here. As said above, CAtia is the cat's a$$ when it comes to cad. Super powerful...

But to program parts? Stick wif Mastercam. Even on the 5 ax parts I can program 2 jobs to 1 in MC.

 

Shoot, Catia took me 2 months just to learn the different workbenches we have - pmg, smg, lmg, mmg, md2, blah blah blah....

[s.s.cheema]

Hi Martin, I have used both catia and mc and found cat is lot slower than mc any given day as Robert said almost 50% slower.

quote:

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I predicted a 6 months learning curve

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I would say 5 months only if you spend at least 4hrs everyday and thats just for the cam side.

[Dowty123]

Hi Martin, I'm working on Catia right now for Messier-Dowty (I've met a few of you fellows lately) and I worked with Mastercam for 7 years. It all depends on how you see it and how much effort the company will want to put on it. The place I worked before, we switched to Catia but when it was'nt fast enough we were doing it on MC so we were'nt getting better. Catia isn't a standalone CAM software like MC because you have the .aptsource that is different and also posts will be funny to tune unless you have a post guru on site. I had the ICAM training but it has nothing to do with MC posts. With all that said, it's a package with strenghts and weaknesses (like all packages) where somedays you remember those MC days and some others where it does the job and very well. Feel free to contact me.

 

Jean-Simon

[s.s.cheema]

Martin,

I also work on catia. But there are few things that I always liked better doing in mc such as

1. renumbering of tools

2. grouping and sub grouping of toolpaths in ops manager when you have to organize more toolpaths

imagine doing that in catia with over 100 toolpaths

3. absolute values especially in ref. points

4. ease of defining multiple work-offsets in horizontal machining.

5. thread-milling with multiple passes for hard-milling and tapered threads

6. post-processing

7. smooth option in 3d toolpaths with nice rounding arcs between passes

 

You can gather a list of important items that you do in mc and I can tell you that how easy or hard to do those in catia.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

THAT was a very concise list S.S. unlike my tirade.

[heavychevy2155]

James, you were just having a bad day. It good to let it all out sometimes.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Yeah, more like a bad few months.

 

When/if I get some time, I want to go take some CATIA classes. Right now is really tough at work though. I'm traveling a bit while one of our other engineers is heavy into a project in my region so I'm covering for him when I can.

[s.s.cheema]

And one more thing about catia you'll click 5-7 times more than any other cam including mc everyday. So you can build really good index finger muscles.

[FLIPPER™]

Starting to really love designing in Catia. Know myself around really good now after 3 mo. Doing full assy. and intra grating store boughts n such. (Wishing I knew how to do configurations like SW). It's very much like my old Fav. Solidworks. Programming is slower for me. Too much to do/setup just to get a cut done. Seem to be moving faster every day though. I think I still prefer Solidworks for designing. Maybe cuz its familiar. Boeing and other Company's have told us to move to it completely if we want to do business with them in the future. Well they made it clear that they are to be nothing else. Dropping NX they said and others to move to a common platform. MC is a faster Cam for me still and I feel more confident using it. (was a gibbs man once. still own it.). I must say that I'm feeling more confident in Catia everyday. I support the Company I'm at in the move to Catia. They are of good size and the contracts require it. But myself I'm a die hard MC guy now and love the control I get from it. (did I say that?) Invested in it this last month Mill3/Solids. Man what a nut for me. And Solidworks 2008! Yes can you say in Dept! Oh well should re coup the cost in due time. In it for the long term. Catia is more of an investment like 3.5x more = equipped. So.. it depends on the direction your company needs to go. Catia is a good move. Just don't give up on having MC around. You WILL need it.

 

Oh Catia slams NX anyday. You think Catia is cumbersome? NX geeze. Too much app for me.

 

2 cents installed.

 

[cobra95kev]

I am taking CATIA classes right now here at WSU at the NIAR. I have taken two classes so far,

Part Design and Sketcher and Assembly Design.

My next class is Wireframe and Surfaces which I am not looking forward to as I have never had any wireframe and surface training just little bits of stuff I have done here on the job. After this class I will finally get in to the machining classes, Prismatic Machining and Surface Machining. There are some good paying jobs around here right now for V5 programmers. I am hoping if I can manage to get to get straight A's through all of my classes I will be able to get one of those jobs at some of the larger aircraft factories in town.

[s.s.cheema]

I meant mouse clicks, double click in empty space