Every now and then something comes along that changes the world. CATIA is just that.
Created not by software engineers, but by an unparalleled passion for aviation, CATIA (Computer-Aided Three Dimensional Interactive Application) was a logical outgrowth of Dassault's belief that better computer programs would enable it to build better fighters and Falcons.
CATIA enables a wide range of industries to design better products while compressing time, minimizing or eliminating the necessity of rework and reducing production costs. Engineers and designers rely on CATIA to produce space vehicles, aircraft-including Falcons-automobiles, ships, bridges, power plants, Olympic facilities, refrigerators, even toasters. So you see, CATIA didn't just build a better Falcon it built a better industry.
The seeds of CATIA were sewn in the 1960s when a small group of aerodynamicists at Dassault wrestled with the problem of theoretical calculation. The demands of aeronautical design overwhelmed those early machines and their primitive, linear-processing programs. Since the computer industry had no solution on the horizon, Dassault took the challenge upon itself set out to creation a software that would:
- design the shapes of wings, fuselages and structural parts
- perform aerodynamic analyses of external shapes
- perform structural analyses of parts, sections or the whole aircraft;
- drive the numerical-controlled machines that cut metal parts to critical tolerances
In 1981, Dassault decided to market CATIA so many industries could benefit from the software. At the same time, Dassault Systèmes was created to develop new generations of CATIA, and a marketing agreement was signed with IBM. Dassault Systèmes has since added subsidiaries in the U.S. and Japan, and has grown from 20 employees in 1981 to more than 1000.
A market leader in the mechanical CA/CAM/CAE* industry, CATIA boasts the largest customer base in the world with more than 90,000 customer seats and 8000 customers. CATIA is the standard system for the automotive and aerospace industries. Practically every aerospace company relies on complete airplane models or components and systems. CATIA is successful because it is the only such program that permits full simulation and access by multiple users to visualize the entire lifecycle of the product-design, operation, manufacture, maintenance and more-from the earliest stages of its development.
CATIA enabled Dassault Aviation to forego the traditional mockup for the Falcon 900 long-range trijet and go directly to a pre-production aircraft (not even a prototype). This is done today on all Falcon models. Dassault Falcon Jet relies on CATIA to create detailed cabin configurations and layouts for Falcon customers. After approval, CATIA drawings are further refined at the Little Rock Completion Center and are used to build and install cabinets, seats, galleys, entertainment centers, lavatories and so on.
Even Falcon competitors have begun using CATIA to help design their aircraft models, including Bombardier, Gulfstream, and Raytheon.
CATIA is the industrial television, a virtual environment in which users can see non-existent products actually come to life in front of their eyes. |
