Self learning of CATIA, here are 5 tips and techniques from my experience that will help in your self learning of CATIA.?#1 Its possible. Set it in your mentality CATIA or any CAD program is simple. For god sake you are an aerospace engineer or going to become one. so if you have the brains to do that you definetely have the skills to take on CATIA on self learning basis.
#2 Begin in small steps, small models. Don't go for fuselage, compressor or the whole assembly unit. Begin with making a glass, a bowl , a brick, a rod, a tapering rod. Small steps will show you the small features that will make big things latter on. Do as many of this small step as you want. The more you do it the more it will be easy for you to do the big things.
#3 Basically CATIA or any other CAD program like solidworks is just a mathematical tool, see how they do the things they are doing> IF you are doing something, try to see how the program is calculating and does this things. This simple yet powerful observation will teach you more about catia , solidworks than any text books that you might read.
#4 Now when these small step are done. Take up some good tutorials and do them one by one.
#5. Doing tutorial, don't run through them. Here's one way that i have found most productive in terms of learning any CAD tool including CATIA or Solidworks. Complete the step by step tutorial. Once its complete, pat yourself for the job well done. Now there are 2 things, review the step you followed and then keep quite. Don't think about the tutorial any more. After sometime, maybe an hour or two or maybe more come back. Do the same tutorial but this time don't see the steps at all. If you are stuck, don't get into the tutorial. Just improvise and do what you think most suits it. Do it and i bet you you will accelerate your CAD skills must faster than any other techniques.
So these are some of the tips that i have gathered from my experience on working on CATIA, Solidworks and unigraphics.
Well this were some of the tips and now if you want some CATIA tutorials, these are some links that might help you.
What is catia?
Catia Video tutorials
Solidworks CAD video tutorials
Catia vs Solidworks
EDST launches catiaa and enovia training center
Where can i learn NASTRAN and CATIA
What is NASTRAN?
