A few days back i was having a chat with one o my friend about the CAD tools. While talking he observed that in aerospace catia is the cad tool that's defacto in aerospace industry. His statement made me wonder how correct is he?
In NAL, where i have spent close to 1.5+ years, solidworks was the tool that dominated my and my colleagues work. In my lab it was used extensibly, i have seen cad designer model, draft whole gas turbine engine in solidworks. But then when it cames to the design of aircraft and wing, i saw catia taking the lead.
So which one takes the lead in catia vs solidworks contest in aerospace domain?
Catia is vast, has better PLM capabilities, more specialized modules, more legacy support. So the answer is catia takes the lead.
But now solidworks is slowly picking up and from the direct replacement of autocad, solidworks is now marketing design.
As my personal opinion, i have used both catia and solidworks,and since my most work involved solidworks i tend to favor it.
In terms of learning curve, solidworks beats catia hands down. Its much more intuitive and you actually work on your design rather than on the software.
The menus and commands are well presented, the AI in the software guesses your intension pretty well. If i have to make a crude comparison. I'll say solidworks is google calendar, while catia is microsoft's calendar.
While catia might have the bulk, but for a student, I'll definitely recommend working in solidworks then if or he chooses he can migrate to catia.
But catia is all companies demand, i hear someone saying, yes its true, but before you get ready for job, you need to know if you are ready for CAD and that my friend solidworks does very well.
