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General Motors switching to Catia V5?
- Thread starter jackley
- Start date
JohnRBaker
Mechanical
Don't believe everything you hear "through the grape vine" ;-)
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
- Thread starter
- #3
Only reason I asked, I've heard they are benchmarking it and training some of their programmers in Catia V5. It seems they have so much vested into NX that it would make absolutely no sense in the switch. Especially financially.
Justin
Designer
Justin
Designer
JohnRBaker
Mechanical
Reviewing the current state of technology is not all that unusual for any larger company to be doing. Besides, if I wanted to start some 'rumors' of my own I could list several big name Catia users who are currently looking at NX, but all that means is that they too are paying attention to the current state of the industry and the direction that technology is going.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
On the cam side, here in LA, I've seen Catia shops move to NX. But not the other way around.
I like to reminisce of a big meeting 10 years ago at a very large airframe shop here in LA: I had been the only UG programmer there for several months. They used Catia and NCL. Both Dasault and UGS agreed to come in to have a face to face "showdown". One the one side of the conference table: The Catia Mafia. On other side: the UGS team. It was a pretty grueling couple days. Both sides had to provide finished programs of large airframe parts that we then picked apart for time, effort, cost, and efficient tool path. Long story short - they moved to NX. It's one thing to force the issue of programming in the same environment as the supplier but one again - efficient tool path wins on big parts. : )
But like John said, they still take a look now and then to keep abreast.
--
Bill
I like to reminisce of a big meeting 10 years ago at a very large airframe shop here in LA: I had been the only UG programmer there for several months. They used Catia and NCL. Both Dasault and UGS agreed to come in to have a face to face "showdown". One the one side of the conference table: The Catia Mafia. On other side: the UGS team. It was a pretty grueling couple days. Both sides had to provide finished programs of large airframe parts that we then picked apart for time, effort, cost, and efficient tool path. Long story short - they moved to NX. It's one thing to force the issue of programming in the same environment as the supplier but one again - efficient tool path wins on big parts. : )
But like John said, they still take a look now and then to keep abreast.
--
Bill
I hear (albeit on the other side of the pond in the [sic]sunny UK) that there are 2 US companies that are perhaps looking to take NX on board and if just 1 of them takes NX on board it will instantly make them the biggest user of NX in the world eclipsing even the mighty GM....HOw's that for a well informed rumor? ;-)
Best regards
Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)
Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...
Best regards
Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)
Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...
- Thread starter
- #7
Well good thing for me then, if anyone moves to NX. You can see my paranoia about GM switching to Catia since I have been primarily a GM NX user for the last 15 years.
Like I said, I just wanted to get other peoples opinion and if they had heard the same.
Thank you all.
Justin
Designer
Like I said, I just wanted to get other peoples opinion and if they had heard the same.
Thank you all.
Justin
Designer
It works both ways. I worked in a plant that was all UG. Corporate signed a big PTC contract because they came in with a lower price than UG. At that point, each division had been free to choose their own CAD and the corporate was split between Pro/E and UG. We had at least 2 large divisions using Iman/TeamCenter. Because we had a sister plant using AutoCad, when they went to a 3D cad system, corporate forced Pro/E on them and we had to move to Pro/E, too, after 15 years on UG. Move forward 6 years and the corporate decides our business is too cyclical so the sell the division to a company that uses CATIA as the corporate standard. The plant goes through another round of training and change.
Sometimes decisions are made based on other than technical reasons.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Sometimes decisions are made based on other than technical reasons.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
as small persuaded UG/NX Cad operator with experience in V5:
In the last 15 years I have seen the automotive cad business.
In the 90th the supplier felt free to use the cad solution. I have seen many toolshops working for the automotives using ug switching to v5 because they must deliver in V5 with all engineering knowledge - no UG /Nx thats the mess . The fun is that the long term data storrage is done in step and dxf,pdf
In the last 15 years I have seen the automotive cad business.
In the 90th the supplier felt free to use the cad solution. I have seen many toolshops working for the automotives using ug switching to v5 because they must deliver in V5 with all engineering knowledge - no UG /Nx thats the mess . The fun is that the long term data storrage is done in step and dxf,pdf
When I did automotive airbags in the early 90's we had PDGS and UG, pre-v10 days.
Chrysler work was done in PDGS and converted to CATIA.
Ford work was done in UG and coverted to PDGS.
GM work was done and delivered in UG.
Saturn work was done in UG and converted to CATIA by Perot Systems for delivery to EDS.
The automotive industry uses a little of everything even within one company. They are always evaluating what the other companies do, as well as other CAD systems.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
Chrysler work was done in PDGS and converted to CATIA.
Ford work was done in UG and coverted to PDGS.
GM work was done and delivered in UG.
Saturn work was done in UG and converted to CATIA by Perot Systems for delivery to EDS.
The automotive industry uses a little of everything even within one company. They are always evaluating what the other companies do, as well as other CAD systems.
"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
Ben Loosli
What I can see among our current and possible future customers in aerospace shows a heavier preference for Catia; any future contracts with many of these customers will see us picking up a seat or two of Catia. After 20 years using UG, I was relieved to learn that we wouldn't be throwing it out the door, but will retain NX as our primary CAD system. While I look forward to picking up a new system, I dread the frustration that comes with having to (temporarily) forget everything you know about CAD in order to learn it.
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - [small]Robert Hunter[/small]
On the other hand I've worked in large OEM's that remained stuck in older versions of their CAD software (not UG or NX), one of which had just one password for all of several thousand users of their system. Switching modelling or machining between competing systems may be relatively straightforward, but migrating the drafting data is an absolute nightmare!
Best Regards
Hudson
www.jamb.com.au
Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum
Best Regards
Hudson
www.jamb.com.au
Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum
One of the things that has frustrated me about this issue, over the years, is that the decision makers are almost never the people who have to use the software. And as you know no one ever got fired for buying IBM or their affiliates. As much as I feel that NX is one of the top systems available, i have group on another continent that is trying to tell me how I will (can) use it. Frustration!
I first heard of this in 2003, then in 2007...
Could be the same rumor floating around for quite some time now.
UGNX5.0.4.1 MP6 \ WinXP-SP3
Productive Design Services
Could be the same rumor floating around for quite some time now.
UGNX5.0.4.1 MP6 \ WinXP-SP3
Productive Design Services
JycoCAD,
I heard from an excellent source that Chrysler needs... NEEDS(!) 200 designers/engineers that are fluent in both V5 and NX as yes, they are migrating (but extremely slowly)to NX for future programs but the kicker is that a large percentage of designers are still stuck on V4! Even in Detroit, finding folks that have both NX and Catia V5 experience is a real challenge. So many people moved on, moved out, retired, took the package or plain got pissed off and went and did something else that finding these people will prove to be tough. I had an interview at Ground Zero (4th floor/KBE) two weeks ago and was glad to leave. Depressing.
I heard from an excellent source that Chrysler needs... NEEDS(!) 200 designers/engineers that are fluent in both V5 and NX as yes, they are migrating (but extremely slowly)to NX for future programs but the kicker is that a large percentage of designers are still stuck on V4! Even in Detroit, finding folks that have both NX and Catia V5 experience is a real challenge. So many people moved on, moved out, retired, took the package or plain got pissed off and went and did something else that finding these people will prove to be tough. I had an interview at Ground Zero (4th floor/KBE) two weeks ago and was glad to leave. Depressing.
as far as I know / understood v6 is it the combination of Nx and TC - V6 is running only on database ... nearly 14 years ago I have seen something like that in i-deas.
Benchmarking - would be nice to get the results - the decision in big companys is driven by money and politics.
Benchmarking - would be nice to get the results - the decision in big companys is driven by money and politics.
I received NX files a couple of weeks ago from Chrysler...
I've had Catia v5 training, back in '05 when it looked like we were going to go to a single in-house design system... But even for a small shop with 2-3 Tool/fixture designers it did not make financial sense. While most of our work originated in Catia, Catia just plain costs too much in the long term...
Though now it probably doesn't make much difference as we are so far behind in Maintenance on all of our software it will probably be cheaper to start over with something else.
I've had Catia v5 training, back in '05 when it looked like we were going to go to a single in-house design system... But even for a small shop with 2-3 Tool/fixture designers it did not make financial sense. While most of our work originated in Catia, Catia just plain costs too much in the long term...
Though now it probably doesn't make much difference as we are so far behind in Maintenance on all of our software it will probably be cheaper to start over with something else.
JohnRBaker
Mechanical
For what it's worth:
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
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