Catia and design

[Artur]

Hey all. Has anyone used Catia to design yachts?How was the experience?

Thanks.

[Guest]

probably expensive...very, very expensive.

[Doug Carlson]

Artur,

For about 8 years, I have been using Pro/E ( I believe it is approximately, functionally equivalent to Catia) for design and manufacturing in the areas of aerospace and electronics mechanical components. I have also used it extensively for tooling and product design.

Recently I've been experimenting with it for boat design (hobby). My impression is that from a mechanical design and surfacing standpoint all of the necessary capabilities are available. Pro/E has a ship building module the cost of which I could not justify for my interests. Without that module no performance analysis is readily available. I'm sure that using the programming capabilities, one could develope analysis capabilities.

I would never recommend Pro/E as a dedicated boat/yacht design software because the overhead, both financial and learning curve, are too high, and there are a large number of significantly less expensive and more tailored softwares available.

On the other hand, because I've already made the investments for other reasons, I intend to continue experimenting.

Doug