CATIA vs. DELMIAWorks

CATIA is probably the most preferred 3D modeling tool in the automotive and aerospace industries. This specific surface (it can be handled well by the experienced users) is well suited to use parametric design principles and hence result in great products. One of the issues we have in the automotive industry is to work with large surfaces for body exterior (main body, gate, hood.) or interior trim (door, headliner.) panels. CATIA enable us to design surface perfectly through the lines. Also, assembly features for intricate designs (gearbox, exhaust, engine, suspension.) are more than adequate. I did not find any inefficiency while designing products with CATIA. Only the interface and handling of the menu and mouse is not the best - or at least you need time to get used to it.

Incentivized

I think [DELMIAWORKS (formerly IQMS)] is well suited for our manufacturing side of the business. The Quality control module is great for reference and being able to stay up to par on ISO Certification. Everything in the Payroll module takes 10 steps or more just to complete a simple task. Nothing in there needs to be that complicated.

Incentivized

• There really is no 3D software that offers all the design modules, drafting and assembly options and manipulation tools that CATIA offers.
• There are a specific module and tool for just about anything you need to do, so the design process with CATIA can be very optimized.
• Great surface modeling capabilities.

Incentivized

• As a manufacturing company, Inventory Control has to be at the top of the list. The inventory module provides flexibility, but also tracks any move that is done to inventory.
• RealTime allows our users to see the status of a machine or production run from anywhere. This also allows us to complete our production reporting process much quicker than we would without it.
• The quality modules across the board are pretty well thought out and very easy for end users to use. The layout of these modules are similar, so it makes it easy to understand and set up. Document Control is used every single day to route documents appropriately before being released.

Incentivized

• Updating an existing design can become really frustrating. You have to reassign all the radiuses, for example, even if they moved slightly.
• CAE function is not that good.
• Radiuses are slightly bad and can cause you lots of problems.

Incentivized

• Accounting reports: accrued receipts reporting makes it difficult to reconcile.
• Fixed assets: depreciation posts to the general ledger at the asset level, generating inordinately large numbers of relatively meaningless transactions.
• Process cost: PIT display lacks many useful fields, including vendor name and number.
• Financial reports carry beyond two decimal places.
• Report structures are not sensibly arranged, and many reports imbed data within text fields, making manipulation and reporting more time-consuming.

Incentivized

Given how invested we are it would be hard not to renew as don't want to go through another implementation.

Incentivized

It is a good software for conception. But it is too hard sometimes to work with and understand the different options available

The menu system is easy to navigate and intuitive for users. The learning curve for administrators is quite steep form setting up user permissions to creating reports for users. This is a very powerful system with many dynamics to help most companies. Expandability is always there and it comes down to how granular you would like your company to be on a data gathering/reporting and material flow process.

I generally contact with IT or internal CATIA support team, so I cannot comment in detail. I remember we have struggled to move to v6 update, and it required a long and detailed work to update all the systems. There were some times we had limited support from Dassault, but it is normal for a company of our size. So I cannot criticize much.

Incentivized

We constantly have trouble getting support. There doesn't seem to be anyone there anymore that can help with what we need.

Incentivized

It is nice that an IQMS employee helps you with the implementation, however they were more of a technical resource than a project management resource. I wish they could provide a more off the shelf timeline given their experience in implementing the system.

Incentivized

Once major advantage I realized when using CATIA is surface modelling, and modifications or changes in part model later. SOLIDWORKS provide a really good and quick way to part modelling. However, part modifications and assembly modifications take time. In CATIA, complex geometries can be easily generated, when compared to SOLIDWORKS. Managing and updating designs of large scale models and complex geometries made me realize an advantage of CATIA over other CAD software.

DELMIAWorks had the best overall manufacting and data gathering software for our facility. It was easy to implement coming from a 20 year old Unix based system. The DELMIAWorks had a more robust system than Global Shop and while close to Plex, had a better pricing system and the ability to have the server on site versus the cloud.

• The ease of modeling helps a lot to save time, in both modeling new parts and also assemblies, which in the end makes a great positive impact on the development.

Incentivized

• Enterprise IQ is so versatile that it has many different ways to get to the desired result. By using their software we are able to track problems area and shift our focus on the areas that need fixed.
• Before going to Enterprise IQ our employees used to stand for hours at a computer with a pad and pencil making manual transactions. Not all of that is done through the use of scanners. The amount of overall savings not to mention the accuracy of inventory has improved greatly.

Incentivized