I was a design engineer using Dassault Catia V5 and V6. I designed many kinds of parts including casting parts, injection molded parts, and created technical drawings, macros, scripts, surface development, and generative shape design activities, mostly for the automotive industry.
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable capabilities of Dassault Catia for me are the surface design, as the control of surfaces is the best for me, along with the Part Design commands, which align with manufacturing methods, and the technical drawing features, which are also quite user-friendly.
The handling of the model in Dassault Catia is quite successful, as it alerts me to design updates or errors by turning corresponding parts red, enabling me to identify and debug any problematic areas quickly.
I enhance project teamwork using Dassault Catia's collaboration tools, including file-based design or embedded PLM systems, allowing real-time collaboration on designs without conflicting changes, as the system locks parts upon assignment, ensuring secure modifications.
The clash check analysis feature in Dassault Catia is quite powerful, helping me visualize clash points clearly within sections and providing detailed reports on problematic areas for validation of complex designs.
Dassault Catia has significantly impacted product design efficiency, particularly in the automotive industry, where predefined workflows facilitate processes like injection molding and sheet metal designs seamlessly with the necessary production outputs.
What needs improvement?
I find that Dassault Catia is not very user-friendly for newbies, as it can be quite challenging to learn compared to other CAD software, due to its different structural approach that stems from its aerospace industry origins.
I have negative comments about Dassault Catia's pricing policy because the costs for different modules and export licenses such as the STEP model license are very high, making it expensive for comprehensive use.
The scalability of Dassault Catia requires a significant investment, making it less affordable for smaller companies, as it is best suited for larger organizations with more extensive design teams to justify the costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Dassault Catia since 2011.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability and reliability of Dassault Catia are among its most powerful attributes, as it can handle detailed models such as entire airplane designs without any issues.
How are customer service and support?
I have communicated with the technical support of Dassault Catia, which varies by region; while support in Turkey is quick and helpful, I found the Canadian support team to be slower and more difficult to access.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used NX prior to Dassault Catia, which included no issues with STEP model creation, as all necessary functionalities were part of the package without additional costs.
What about the implementation team?
I participated in the initial setup and deployment of Dassault Catia, configuring it according to my company standards, especially for V6, which operates directly from the cloud with all features embedded.
What other advice do I have?
I did not see the link to the Siemens NX review; could you tell me which email you sent it to? My overall review rating for Dassault Catia is 8.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other

