Boat design software switching from CATIA

Discussion in 'Software' started by nacrajon, Mar 27, 2012.

  1. nacrajon
    Joined: Jan 2009
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    nacrajon Junior Member

    Experienced user in CATIA V5r15. Shifting from aero to marine engineering post degree. Do I stick with Catia or is there better boat design software with a similar interface?
     
  2. DCockey
    Joined: Oct 2009
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    DCockey Senior Member

    Will you be looking for employment, working alone, or ..... ?

    What area of marine engineering - mechanical systems, structure, hull design, superstructure design, ....?

    What type of vessels - large commercial ships, military ships, submarines, small commercial vessels, large yachts, small boats ........?
     
  3. yipster
    Joined: Oct 2002
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    yipster designer

    Allway's good to look around and compare
    from what i've seen of catia and with your experience
    chances are you may want to stick with it
     
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  4. DavidJ
    Joined: Jun 2004
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    DavidJ Senior Member

    Catia is awesome for sure and there are companies in the marine industry using it. However, it is quite expensive which I believe is has been it's biggest hurdle towards greater industry acceptance.

    I'm not entirely sure what your question is. What do you mean by stick with Catia? If you own a copy and are doing freelance work then yeah stick with what you have. If you are trying to get hired by a marine company then knowing more software is always better. It doesn't mean you forget what you know about Catia, you just add knew skills and beef up that resume.

    It's impossible to know how to use all of the different software out there. In my own career I haven't found software knowledge to even come up during interviews. Once I have the job they ask me if I know how to use such and such or can I please try to learn such and such software. However, I have a naval architecture education which is fairly specialized. I don't know if it would be the same if I was looking for a pure drafting or modeling job.

    The biggest problem with switching from aircraft to ships with Catia is that every module is different. Sometimes I find learning a new module is only slightly easier than learning a whole new software package. You could know everything about every tool in the generative shape design and then get a job where they want you to use the piping module and it uses completely different tools. I do hate that.

    Anyhow there are many many different software packages used in the marine industry. These change depending on where you work or what type/size of company you work for or what aspect of the industry the company works in. In North American I've found the most common to be Autocad, Rhino, Solidworks, and Shipconstructor. It wouldn't hurt to take an autocad course to get an idea of how it is used. If you are good on acad it is pretty easy to transition to Rhino or shipconstructor as they use many of the same commands and the same sort of thinking is required. Since you already know Catia, Solidworks (SW) should be very easy to pick up. It uses the same type of tree based hierarchy, clicky buttons, drawing generation, and more. Most importantly the way you have to think when designing in SW is very similar to how you have to work in Catia. The same type of forward thinking you have to do to make sure your models don't fall apart.
     
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  5. ClarkT
    Joined: Jun 2003
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    ClarkT Senior Member

    SolidWorks

    Good advice from David. U.S. Navy CCD has largely standardized on SolidWorks and you could probably pick it up in a matter of days. Many of the better small boat yards are going with Solid Works as well (Textron, Kvichak, Metal Shark, USMI)
     
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  6. nacrajon
    Joined: Jan 2009
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    nacrajon Junior Member

    Thanks for the replys, I have been out of email coverage for a while.

    To clarify my question I have used employer funded CATIA in the past for FEA on aircraft. Have a new job as a eng officer on a ship. CAD skills not required for work, but to keep my skills up I would like to draft and analyse a scaled down MOD 70, to approx 20ft. Intention is to use this as a starting point for building a modern version of a Polynesian outrigger.

    As CATIA is now no longer available seeking similar program to loft the hulls and do fluid analysis.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2012
  7. ClarkT
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    ClarkT Senior Member

    Well, Rhino is great for lofting the hulls for under $1k. But for the fluid analysis, I'll be watching this thread to see what the folks come up with, I'm curious myself.
     
  8. DavidJ
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    DavidJ Senior Member

    I don't know of any cheap cfd software. You will probably have to rely on empirical methods.
     
  9. JosephT
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    JosephT Senior Member

    I use NX and it has a CAE module (and CAM module for that matter). For the boat you describe it may/may not be worth the cost...depends on your longer term design goals.

    An alternatives would be to use a lower cost tool (e.g. Rhino) & a stand-alone model solver.
     

  10. Leo Lazauskas
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    Leo Lazauskas Senior Member

    You could start the "fluid analysis" with Michlet, which is free.
     
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