[cncadmin]

OK what is this software and how much is it?

[da21]

the easy't answer is if you need to know the price you cannot afford it !
honestly no idea , i only use it
so long as you have an extremley fast machine or workstation , gig's of ram and can allow 3 minutes for it to load you'll be ok .

here's a start , base and slides for router , it's in a vrml file or grab a veiwer from

http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/

[whiteriver]

Welll lets see how to describe it. Catia is a design, analysis and machining package that can go from concept to reality. You need about 10 years of school to understand it all. Or you need 10 different engineers for each part of the program. If you need to build evey aspect of a F-15 fighter jet or a new Porche then Catia is what you want. You can even put a accurate repesintation of a human in the cockpit to make sure he or she can reach and see all the controls.
All you need is around $250,000.00 for all the packages.

Donny

[mechanical]

Paul,

CATIA V5 is a one stop shop for design, analysis, simulation, and nc programming that was developed mainly for the Aerospace industry. You can check out IBM's website and see if they still offer a 30 day trail version of CATIA for you to try at home. If you are looking to purchase this software might I suggest Solidworks, CATIA's younger brother. Actually Solidworks was purchased by Dassault and became the base which CATIA V5 was developed on. The last time I checked a copy of Solidworks was running around $5K plus annual license fee's.

Hope this answered your question, if not let me know.

Al

[nervis1]

...$250,000.....LOL, I just choked on my coffee....

[pminmo]

Catia V5 is a dog compared to the latest versions of Unigraphics, but both are expensive.

[James_Sr_ICT]

Catia is way overrated, over priced and is user unfriendly. There are several Cad-Cam systems on the market that will do the same thing for thousands less and are very user friendly.

[Cammotion]

We have Unigraphics at work (now NX3), and it's used from design to part. Very powerful, but difficult to learn. I use Surfcam, it's much more efficient, I think.

[James_Sr_ICT]

Hi Bill, I use to work at Lear jet and they use Unigraphics. I never had the chance to learn it but it seem like it would be a hand full. I use Mastercam and have played with Surfcam a little. I will take Surfcam of Mastercam any day. So much more user friendly. What can I say, Catia / IBM, doesnt get much harder......

[Cammotion]

James, amen! We have seats of both Surfcam and Mastercam, and both of them will do just about anything you could want. The guys using UG are still putting out bad code and crashing parts after 5 or so years on it. Seems they're always raking their parts while making XY positioning moves because of the clear plane they set (or don't set!). And of course, a certain snobbery exists!

[James_Sr_ICT]

Hi Bill:
LMAO, isnt that a fact, is it snobbery or slobbery ? I guess I'm lucky cause it's been several year's sense I've had to deal with programs created with UG or Catia. Right now I do deal with Catia files but I convert them to mc9 and drive on. I do have access to Catia ENOVA ( a viewer only ) but don't use it unless I'm desperate. What type of part's are you programming?

[Cammotion]

James, I work fo a manufacturing company, and I get to make a lot fixturing for test labs and inspection.

[James_Sr_ICT]

Bill:
Morning. fixture's, test labs, sound's like it could be some interesting stuff.

[osdhillon]

CATIA V5 is parametric windows based software. Originally it started from Version 1.6 -V4.2.2 (Unix Based) It was a powerfull 3-D solid design tool. I have been using it since 1994. In 1997 it moved to windows platform. At the moment version 14.0 is out and V.15 is due in two months. It combines, Surfacing, Solids, Drafting, Machining package, Plant design, Powerfull analysis/simulation, digital mockup and knowledgeware. I have used Ideas, unigraphics in the past, but CATIA is different. You can design the part (3-D solid) and then define the machining process all in catia. No doubt you need years of experience to become an expert but for home user (simple parts, assemblies and then creating G-codes) it can be learned in few weeks.

Worth a try!!

Cheers
Onkar Singh

[cncwhiz]

I am a Pro E user and use Pro manufacturing as well for programming. You can not compare Catia UG or Pro E to mastercam surf cam etc. The high end software can do nc programming but that is only a small part of the software. You can not do "FEA" or assemblies to build a car or what ever complete with bill of materials along with alot of other things for complete manufacturing. If you are doing basic modeling and nc programming you don't need these programs. To use these programs to do those kind of things is overkill big time. As far as high leveled engineers being snobby like was talked about before. This can be the case. But some of us programmer machinists have snobbgy egos as well.

[SPHINX]

REFER THIS http://www.3ds.com
THERE IS NO NECESSARY TO BROUGHT ALL PACKAGES
AND I THOUGHT V5 MORE EASY TO LEARNING THAN V4
I USE V5 CAM NEAR 3 YEARS

[rickwinters]

Catia is way overrated, over priced and is user unfriendly. There are several Cad-Cam systems on the market that will do the same thing for thousands less and are very user friendly.

Please sir - could you name some of those user friendly progs? I'd sure appreciate it....

[James_Sr_ICT]

Sir: I'm sorry it took so long to reply. My preference in CadCam programs is Mastercam. I have used mastercam sense it was V3.2 and run out of DOS.
It is very user friendly and easy to learn. It can be expensive if you get level 3
and all of the addon's, around 13 to 15 k I would guess. I have heard that
BobCad V20 and SurfCam are good packages but I've never used them. Do
yourself a favor and stay away from Catia and Unigraphic's if possible. In a
small shop, you need to get up and running ASAP and Catia and UG will take
twice as long to get good at. I would be interested in what your going to do
with a cad package after you get it, so if you want to chat about it, feel free
to e-mail me. [email protected] Later, James Sr.

[gopinb]

Hello All,
I would like to know about the various CAM packages available in the market like MasterCAM, UG cam, Catia, DellCAM etc, about their advantages and disadvantages based on Features available, functionality, economical.
If you people have any information or any links where I could find such info, please mail me at [email protected].
This would be a great help. Waiting for responce,
Regards, Gopinath

[tex]

OK what is this software and how much is it?

It is a CAD-CAM-FEA package used to design, test and manufacture BOEING 777 from scratch. I think this says a lot.