Yacht Design with Catia V5

[ClassicYacht]

Hi everybody,

I am about to buy Catia. I am wondering if I get everything I need for designing boats with Catia or do I need to get "Catia for Yacht"?
Is it possible to get lines plans out of Catia without buying another tool?
What about calculating Hydrostatics?
Is there a description on how to get started with designing hulls in Catia? I am already good in using solid works.

I would be very for your help!

[yachty4000]

Catia isn't designed for hull modelling without the yacht design module. It does surface modelling but not with the same degree of flexibility as a dedicated NA software. As for hydrostatics it all depends on your program knowledge I certainly couldn't write the coding but you could easily get the centre and volumes out of it for a fixed trim anaylsis.

Only problem with Catia is the price!!!

[valber]

If you have money enough you should look Siemens NX. IMHO
We have tested Catia, Solidworks, Mechanical Desktop and NX for small craft design.
Catia is very good, but very steep learning curve and anyway you need soft for hull, CNC, stability and some else... Mechanical Desktop for me now is only for 2D. Solidworks is very and very good soft but has problems when you works with big assemblies. NX is my choose, now we are about to buy it. But stability soft we must have anyway and we have Aerohydro SurfaceWorks 4.1 Marine for SolidWorks (now it calls Multisurf) for hull design...
Sorry, my english is not so good enough to write more details...

[nhatlamntu]

I think with Rhinoceros+Maxsurf+Shipconstructor are enougnt for you. That's my best way now.

[yachty4000]

There is a hull design and stability bolt on for catia using MAAT hydro in the same way as there is for Rhino. The main problem with Catia is the price and the price and the price!!! For basic small yachts that you aren't doing FAE etc on. It simply doesn't seem worth the investment. I would go Maxsurf, AutoCAD LT and Solidworks as solidworks is from the same company as Catia and will prepare you for moving over to Catia in the long term.

[valber]

Originally Posted by yachty4000

...solidworks is from the same company as Catia and will prepare you for moving over to Catia in the long term.

It is ironic but NX has the interface much more similar on Solidworks than Catia has... Also NX and Solidworks have the same kernel - Parasolid. It simplify data interchanging between programs

[LyndonJ]

Why would you want Catia to do yacht design ? The majority of yacht designers are using Rhino with a plugin from Rhino marine ( now unavailable and the new one is Orca ) , the more professional ones use Maxsurf ( available free for limited surfaces ) as a companion to Rhino.

The big advantage of using a wheel someone has already designed is that it suits the purpose, add things like transverse stability curves ( you will need to do this free to trim fore and aft for accurate results ) and you'll quickly see the value in Rhino-Orca combo with maxsurf for the rest of the nav arch requirements such as workshop.

[yachty4000]

Originally Posted by LyndonJ

Why would you want Catia to do yacht design ? The majority of yacht designers are using Rhino with a plugin from Rhino marine ( now unavailable and the new one is Orca ) , the more professional ones use Maxsurf ( available free for limited surfaces ) as a companion to Rhino.

The big advantage of using a wheel someone has already designed is that it suits the purpose, add things like transverse stability curves ( you will need to do this free to trim fore and aft for accurate results ) and you'll quickly see the value in Rhino-Orca combo with maxsurf for the rest of the nav arch requirements such as workshop.

Is this really the question no one is questioning Maxsurf but Rhino is the industry standard only because of it cost and the how simple it is to use. It started as a surface not solid modeller although the functionality of it is growing quickly. I questioned the cost issue above as you have to sell a lot of designs to cover the investment cost of catia. Catia is much more than just a basic design tool it can go into FEA studies and full production engineering and modelling. (This is why Boeing and Airbus and Bosch for example all use it) In terms of yacht design Oyster, Beneteau and Hanse use it some yacht designer use it Rodgers Yacht Design openly use it but I know a number of other designers do.

[kalvens]

Originally Posted by yachty4000

Catia isn't designed for hull modelling without the yacht design module. It does surface modelling but not with the same degree of flexibility as a dedicated NA software. As for hydrostatics it all depends on your program knowledge I certainly couldn't write the coding but you could easily get the centre and volumes out of it for a fixed trim anaylsis.

Only problem with Catia is the price!!!

yeah~~the catia isn't designed for the hull ,you may design the hull structure in the maxsurf

[LarryMcI]

CATIA is much more than a design tool. Product Lifecycle Management covers every aspect from design-to-mold(s) and laminate-schedule development to wiring, plumbing and hydraulic systems. Inventory, Bill-of-Material and cost-tracking are just a few of hundreds of functions that integrate under the CATIA umbrella. Conceptional design is more difficult than with many easy-to-learn packages, but the power to readily transition to full-scale production is worth the price if you are serious about boatbuilding profitably.

[LarryMcI]

An article about CATIA in the marine industry was in April's issue of Composites Technology.
http://www.compositesworld.com/artic...ll-tool-design

[formsys]

We have a few users who export from Maxsurf to Catia and use it for production detailing. However you will need some kind of naval architecture software prior to Catia to assist with stability, resistance prediction etc.
You will also probably find it easier to create a hullform in Maxsurf or similar navarch software than you will in Catia. Catia is very capable but almost has too many functions and options. Being a general purpose modeller, it certainly isn't set up by default to work the way a naval architect works. The Catia users tend to be working in very high end projects (big $'s) in composites.