Catia vs Mastercam

[Mastercam-Bob]

I have a lot of experience with Mastercam mill level 3 but not any CATIA programming experience. The company I work for has both. Anyone here no how the two compare?

[txcncman]

I have never seen Catia in action, but my understanding is that Catia is a software package intended for "cradle-to-grave" manufacturing. Maybe there are different levels. I do not know. The idea of "cradle-to-grave" is the software has capabilities of drawing, design, assemblies, modeling, model testing, bill of materials, work order creation, time study, etc. In other words, you can design an entire aircraft from nose to tail and account for every part, including every screw or rivet, and every part is linked appropriately to every other part.

[Mastercam-Bob]

I have never seen Catia in action, but my understanding is that Catia is a software package intended for "cradle-to-grave" manufacturing. Maybe there are different levels. I do not know. The idea of "cradle-to-grave" is the software has capabilities of drawing, design, assemblies, modeling, model testing, bill of materials, work order creation, time study, etc. In other words, you can design an entire aircraft from nose to tail and account for every part, including every screw or rivet, and every part is linked appropriately to every other part.

Yes it's a parametric modeler. The products we design would be much more difficult to deal with if not for CATIA. However I have never used the NC part of it and I am trying to find out if it's worth the time.

[cadcam]

The NC side is powerful for sure. there is a huge learning curve to it and can take allot more time to program what you can in MC. Mostly do to all the controls and options and how they handle things. If you have the chance to learn it. Do it as this gives that many more tools. you never know what you may need at any time.

[mezzfit]

I've been using Catia for designing and NC for 11 years now and the present company I work for now has just moved from MasterCam to Catia for all their machining. On the machining side of things, it can do everything MaterCam can do, but as the previous posters mentioned, the parametric functionality and the ability to carry the part through the whole product lifecycle is the clincher. For example, if your Catia designed part changes, the NC changes, the drawing changes, etc., etc. You can also create pre-defned "templates", then all you'll have to is give it the geometry and it create the toolpaths for you. So much more powerful IMHO. Check out Catia Central for some tutorials to get started