Moving to Catia V5

[maestro]

Just got the word yesterday that we will be receiving new workstations soon and will start implementing Catia V5 manufacturing to start the transition to programming in Catia V5. We are not a large shop but are part of a much larger corp. The majority of our work is aluminum aerospace structural components. Lots of 5 axis work that is run on Makino horizontals equipped with 5 axis rotary tables along with a Haas VF6SS with a TR210 5 axis trunnion table. Our parts will be getting larger and more complex in the future. Up till now, all of my programming experience has been with Mcam starting with V7 up to X4sp3. We use the Moldplus catia translator

to import catia files into Mcam. Just wondering if any of you out there have experience with Catia V5 and have any words of wisdom, advise, or caution about what we are about to embark on here in the near future.

[Columbo™]

I'm jealous.......we use Catia 5 ONLY to analyze models......Then convert them for Mastercam.....Good to always learn new things....congrats....

 

[dforsythe]

We have a seat of it here. We have 5 programmers using MC and one using Catia over in R&D. It seems real simple yet very complex. Its tough to describe. setting up WCS is just like Dynamic plane. It also allows you to select clamps and bolts and plates as fixtures not just check surfaces. I hope we make the transition soon also, just to learn a new software. Good luck.

 

All of our designers use V5 and they come into MC prefect using the catia trans. if you step it out somtimes you get a few bad surfaces. depends on the guy doing the model.

[Watcher]

CATIA V5 used to be a cumbersome piece of software but it evolved a lot. It's very very powerful with tons of great features for aerospace parts machining. The capability to handle fixtures, or toolpathing in a true CAx environment will give you some power that Mastercam never will.

The learning curve is steep, but once you master it you won't regreat the move. The integration with Vericut and CAMPOST is remarkable...

If somewhere in the future the company purchase Mill-Turn machines or anything that needs to handle toolpath synchronization, then you will love it!

 

Congratulations! I wish I could be in your shoes...

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

CATIA is arguably the most powerful CAM system on the planet. With power comes complexity. With complexity comes a steep learning curve. Gone will be the easy transitions between multiple features (i.e. lead in/out). That is replaced by entry/exit macros which will give you about 500 unique combinations of ways to violate a part. Exaggeration? Yes, but only a slight one. There are no meaningful stock Tool Libraries. You'll have to build everything from scratch. Need to engrave on a part? Good luck. I still have not figured that one out. The good, profile selection for contours and such blows Mastercam away. You just pick the walls and based on the machine you select, gives you the appropriate selection possibilities. There's about 2x as many pages/tabs for each toolpath when compared to Mastercam, and you have to do something on every page usually. Oh, and you CANNOT change one toolpath into another (i.e. drill to threadmill, contour to pocket, etc...) Once you select a toolpath to a faeture, you're married to it. Of course you can delete it and reselect again.

 

CATIA CAD is a dream for designing stuff. Not as much power as Synchronus Technology from UG, but for the kind of work we do, that's not a truly "must have" feature IMHO.

 

On a scale of one to 10 for power... 10+

On a scale of one to 10 for ease of use... 2

 

Good Luck!

[taperlength]

Thanks for the review Apps Guy. Someone else was trying to sell Catia to me by saying it was easier than MCX.

[Watcher]

quote:

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Someone else was trying to sell Catia to me by saying it was easier than MCX

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Not in this life...

[Colin Gilchrist]

Personally, having used both, I still prefer Mastercam.

 

Catia is powerful, but cumbersome. There are way too many dialog boxes for my taste. The workflow seems pretty slow. That being said, they have some awesome toolpaths for cutting metal.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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Someone else was trying to sell Catia to me by saying it was easier than MCX.

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ROFL!!!!

 

That's some funny stuff right thar!!!!!

[Dowty123]

Hi Maestro, I did the same way as you 3 years ago, was working with MC since V7. Try to forget your way of thinking (Mastercam philosophy) and the transition will be smooth. You have to be open minded because things are so different. Right now we're 10 programmers here 5 on MC and 5 on Catia. I did had the training on X4 but did'nt really get the chance to work with it to appreciate it to it's real value but I can tell you I still think some jobs can be done much faster in MC but I really appreciate Catia for many reasons.

 

Good luck and be patient.

 

JS

[justind]

Just curious to how your transition went Maestro? I too started using V5 at the same time at my new place of work.

[maestro]

Haven't done it yet. Got swamped with some rather large projects that have to be finished up first. Kinda tuff to get loose for training when you're the only 5 axis guy in a small shop.

[justind]

Gotcha, perfectly understandable. I took 5 classes outside of work in 08 and 09 before taking the jump seriously. Once you take the plunge, it's really not bad. I have programmed for 5 different machines now and done a pretty trick 5x part in catia with no problems at all. Honestly quite impressed with several things in V5, especially the the computation time on 5x toolpaths and roughing. Sure there are a few things easier in mastercam, but i'm able to use some of my work arounds I used in mastercam in catia and seems to workout just fine. We have to provide full blue prints with a complete BOM for every piece of tooling we design for our parts so the drafting is also another perk.

[William Grizwald]

maestro,

 

As others have said there is more complexity with Catia but... a big but - you can create tools within the system to automate much of that complexity. When you get training be sure to speak up about these things. Ask about templates and global editing within operations. A real time saver when you have 100 operations and want to change the engage/retract technique or a host of other parameters.

 

--

Bill

[bogusmill]

Here at Wichita State University, we are the largest Catia training center in the U.S. Three of our instructors have won the last 5 annual Catia design competitions. I took the prismatic machining course back in R11 and I thought it was incredibaly cumbersom and nearly usless to a research shop like us. Now we are teaching R20 and I will be retaking the course to catch up with the changes.

 

In this shop we use MC X4 and design using it too mostly because the shop manager is close to retirement and doesn't want to take classes but still wants to be able to "supervise" the machinists.

 

I look foreward to when I can design with Catia at work but for now I just play with it. Have my house in Catia and its so cool! If the machining module is improved as much as I"ve been told I might be out of MC.

[justind]

I really enjoyed the classes there bogusmill, that's where i took all 5 of mine at.

[cobra95kev]

I did too. Probably the same 5 classes! It is an awesome resource for Wichita.

[KMartin]

Anyone know were you can take a catia course

In Southern Ontario.

 

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