CATIA vs. Onshape

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

Onshape shall be used by organizations where cost is a major factor as the license is relatively competitive than the competition. Where Onshape , excels the most is the ability to be operational on any device with internet connection and webbrowser. Onshape doesn't require your hardware to be beefed with Graphic cards (if added better). Where onshape can be better. If they are able to include simulation packages bundled like SOLIDWORKS.

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

• Cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration is a primary benefit.
• The available documentation is extremely thorough.
• The ability to integrate with other software for simulation, renderings, etc. is fantastic.
• Not having to save and being able to clearly see versions and change history is excellent.

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

• I'm a Pro-user but I would like to have the possibility to have a pay-as-use option in some form. Now it is all or nothing (the public sharing of models - and model rights!) is not an option for many not-for-profit projects.
• On-site hosting might help to sell the cloud concept to the more paranoid management.
• Basic CAM generation would be awesome
• Nonparametric modeling in some form or making it easier to use assemblies for those use cases where you want to model some parts and just play around moving things when you are exploring different configurations.
• Doing Industrial Design type sketching and experimenting is not really a strong point on Onshape

Incentivized

Familiarity and ability to work from any location. Also easy to cooperate with potential customers, existing customers, systems users, and fabricating shops. Most of the standard designs are now in On Shape and I would like to continue using it. It is easier to run versions to clarify imrovements to the previous designs

Incentivized

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

Onshape is great software and I have no trouble recommending it to CAD users and companies that need to do design work

Incentivized

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

Been fairly standard experience with support team. Issues have always been addressed, but is understandably focused on business side applications which typically has different issues than education applications. I have very few IT issues with the design side of the software, my issues are more often with the control of users and access

Incentivized

I might be biased by coming from using three different CAD softwares in the past, so I already understood many modeling concepts, but the training OS offers is really good. Videos are clear, they explain operations in good detail and besides that OS has a really good help system that explains even more how every tool works.

Incentivized

Onshape is revolutionary. Its advantage is that it can be used without having to download it. You are free to work wherever you want. This means that even if you take a vacation or attend a family event, your work will not be interrupted. You can still bring your work and complete it quickly.

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.

I have used SOLIDWORKS for over four years, and the vault system is time intensive for control of design history, and revision management. I have used Pro-E for over four years, and this has the capability but is not user-friendly. Not needing high-end computers is another great reason to choose Onshape

Incentivized

• 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

• Poindexter By Design provides on demand mechanical engineering services and Onshape is directly responsible for a large portion of our customer base because of how easy it is to share and collaborate design projects. In most cases, we are literally up and running on new projects within an hour directly due to Onshape.
• It is inevitable that a project will go through some level of scope creep. Poindexter By Design had a project with a 4-week deadline. Initially, we scheduled two engineers on the project but when the project's scope creep set in and the original deadline didn't change, we were very quickly and easily able to bring on a 3rd Poindexter By Design engineer on the project to handle the scope creep and still meet the deadline. Onshape gives our company the ability to very quickly increase our capacity on design projects with little to no effort and to us, this is priceless.

Incentivized