I would have to disagree wholesomely, in my opinion both CATIA and SolidWorks are extremely similar; especially if you stay in the mainstream workbenches of CATIA such as Part Design, Assembly Design and Drafting.
They are both solid/surface modelers, they are both based on parametric sketches which make history features in a tree, they both differentiate between a "part" mode and an "assembly" mode, both assembly modes work on the concept of constraints, both have drafting environments that consist of projecting your 3d model on the drawing with bi-synchronize associativity, etc...
Where CATIA starts to venture off in a world of its own as the more advanced workbenches, such as Composites Design or ICEM Shape Design and the way the cabling/piping/tubing workbenches work in CATIA behave a fair bit different too as compared to SolidWorks Premium tools.
Overall though, today both are very capable tools and the old adage that CATIA is "high-end" and SW is "mid-range" is a divide that has almost completely faded away (IMO)
I suppose from a very high level view you could make a coherent argument that they are similar, as Kevin has. From a ground-level, daily use perspective they are worlds apart. I find Solidworks more similar to NX than it is to CATIA. CATIA is more customizable, more broad in its scope, and more powerful in some areas. Solidworks is dramatically easier to learn and to use; the user interface is far superior. Expect months of frustration if you are switching from Solidworks to CATIA.
You do have a point DaSalo, the user interface experience is quite different between the two. Case in point, I used to be a heavy SolidWorker but for the past 2 years have been using CATIA. Now I go back to SolidWorks.. and I can't even properly rotate anymore with the model tilting all over me, he he!
