Computer Graphics-Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA) is the world’s leading computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)/computer-aided engineering (CAE) package. Developed by Dassault Systèmes and marketed worldwide by IBM, CATIA delivers one of the best Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions. It provides a single platform to design, analyze, and manufacture a product; this makes the product development faster and easier. CATIA is used by various industries, including automobiles, aerospace, industrial equipment, and ship building. CATIA Version 6 (V6) was fi rst released in mid-2008. The latest release of CATIA V6 is CATIA V6R2009, which was launched on November 25, 2008. The new CATIA V6
user interface allows designers to directly work with solid models rather than using the feature-based design approach of CATIA V5. In this chapter, you fi rst learn about the key enhancements introduced in CATIA V6. Then, you learn how to install CATIA V6 on your computer. Further, you learn how to open CATIA V6 and how to start a new workbench in CATIA V6. Finally, various
components of the user interface of CATIA V6 are discussed in detail. We begin with the key enhancements in CATIA V6.