IBM and Dassault Systemes Announce CATIA Version 5 Release 8

Targeted for full enterprise deployment

Paris, France – February 12, 2002 - IBM and Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced the availability of Version 5 Release 8 (V5R8) of CATIA, the leading 3D product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for product design, creation, simulation and optimization. CATIA V5R8 will be available worldwide on February 15, 2002, with significant enhancements and 23 new products, bringing the total to 119.

CATIA V5 is the product authoring solution within the 3D PLM portfolio.  3D PLM enables customers to optimize their business processes within Engineering, Manufacturing, Maintenance & Support, and in collaborative workspaces by sharing a common product, process, and resource model (PPR).  PPR allows companies to capture, share and reuse knowledge throughout the entire product lifecycle. The CAA V5 open architecture allows extension and integration of this solution within multiple enterprise environments.

"CATIA V5 R8's further integration with ENOVIAVPM and its continuing implementation of the PPR model further facilitates the transition of legacy users from CATIA V4 to V5. Furthermore, users of CATIA V5 will find that its pervasive support for knowledge-based engineering and for collaboration throughout the product lifecycle can help them realize the broader impacts of Product Lifecycle Management," said John MacKrell of CIMdata.

 

Process-Centric

CATIA V5R8 delivers new capabilities to address critical processes defined and refined in close cooperation with customers who are currently deploying CATIA V5 across their extended enterprises. By leveraging capability over a wide range of PLM processes, such as Automotive Body-in-White and moldtool design, the new release helps customers improve time-to-market at reduced cost.

CATIA V5 provides an end-to-end 3D PLM solution for the Shipbuilding Industry and, with V5R8, this is extended to the conceptual engineering phase. New CATIA Structure Preliminary Layout and Structure Functional Design products address the early design needs of naval architects, engineers and suppliers in shipyards by focusing on the optimization of general space management and initial structural layouts. CATIA also adds new systems outfitting capabilities for electrical power and control systems, fluid distribution, and HVAC.

 

3D Collaborative Workspace

Co-development of products around the world is now a reality, from OEMs to all levels of suppliers and partners. CATIA V5R8 brings key differentiators to make this collaboration easy, manageable and cost effective.

CATIA V5 collaborative engineering benefits from "relational design" throughout the entire product development cycle providing unmatched flexibility and ease of use in engineering change propagation, from conceptual design through to detail design phases and into downstream processes. CATIA V5R8 further enhances this capability with new federation/publication mechanisms.

For product engineering processes in companies of all sizes, CATIA V5R8 brings major improvements to the entry solution (P1) with a completely reshaped user interface and native access to the full range of advanced generative solutions (P2). In addition, the integration and consistency of CATIA scalable solutions (P1, P2 and P3) allow any CATIA P1 user to immediately conduct collaborative design across the enterprise and supply chain with existing CATIA P2 and CATIA P3 users.

Moreover, the multi-CAD integration, combined with improvements in standard data interfaces, facilitates complete product engineering within a heterogeneous data environment.

 

PPR

This release showcases the PPR (Product Process Resource) model with enhanced ENOVIA integration to facilitate large-scale deployment and facilitate the transition from CATIA V4 to V5.

CATIA V5’s numerical control (NC) Manufacturing Solutions, which constitute the largest integrated portfolio of manufacturing applications available in a single solution, leverage the PPR model.  As a result, these best-in-class solutions benefit from the integration of NC manufacturing Processes with the Product definition, thereby guaranteeing controlled end-to-end enterprise content management from Design to Manufacturing.

Michael Børresen, Chief Designer at Eurocom Industries A/S in Denmark, said, “I have worked with a number of different product design applications. CATIA has a unique feature that makes it far superior to its competitors and this is CATIA’s ease of building new parts.  CATIA allows freedom of choice with trial and error testing to try out new possibilities and new ideas.  You can create a new design, and if you don’t like it, you can simply delete it and start over.  We are now launching our new VHF radiotelephone for marine vessels and the entire product was built on CATIA V5 architecture.  We are a leading global supplier of maritime equipment and with the increasing power of CATIA applications, we can create the best equipment for our customers now and in the future.”

CATIA V5R8 also brings new Advanced Machining capabilities to support complex 5-axis milling (flank contouring) and enhanced 3 axis operations deliver significant productivity benefits.

End-to-end solutions covering molded part design to tooling design and manufacturing also illustrate the benefits of Product, Processes and Resource integration: CATIA V5R8 introduces moldability assessment (Core and Cavity Design), improved productivity for reverse engineering (Quick Surface Reconstruction), unmatched stereo-lithography (STL Rapid Prototyping) tools, alongside integrated Manufacturing and Mold Tooling Design applications. In this area, CATIA V5R8 now provides the most comprehensive solutions to boost productivity especially for Consumer Goods and E&E industries.

 

Knowledge

Knowledge capture, sharing and re-use are becoming key success factors for innovative companies to gain and maintain their leadership on the market. CATIA natively imbeds knowledgeware as a key component of the V5 infrastructure.

CATIA V5R8 extends existing knowledge-based engineering capabilities by providing users with access to ‘rule bases’ to validate processes and methods throughout the entire product definition phase. The new Knowledge Expert 1 product supports “right first time” design and manufacturing by delivering enterprise-wide rules, standards, and constraints to the extended CATIA community. With CATIA V5R8, knowledgeware becomes pervasive.

 

CAA V5

The Component Application Architecture (CAA) continues to open the V5 next generation architecture to set new industry standards of integrated 3D PLM applications by incorporating enterprise expertise. With CAA V5, Dassault Systemes’ partners are extending the V5 application portfolio, customers are building added value applications to fulfill their company-specific needs and service companies are implementing best practices on top of 3D PLM solutions.

CAA V5R8 significantly enhances the productivity of the Rapid Application Development Environment (RADE) by automating and integrating software release processes across Windows & UNIX operating systems.

Stated Stephane Declee, vice president of strategy for Dassault Systemes, “CATIA V5R8 illustrates the value we can deliver by collaborating closely with industry leading and innovative customers. We are enabling industry specific best practices through our knowledge-based product offering. We are making 3D PLM available to a much larger population across both industry and market segments. CATIA V5R8 delivers the most comprehensive end-to-end process coverage in a natively integrated solution available today. Far beyond traditional MCAD systems, it is the Product Engineering Desktop and a watershed release for 3D PLM.”

“Working closely together with our top customers and developers such as Dassault Systemes for many years, IBM can provide great industry value and insight whether it’s in terms of industry best practices, services or a robust e-business infrastructure,” said Ed Petrozelli, general manager, IBM Product Lifecycle Management. “CATIA V5R8 is a key example of the innovation IBM’s partnering strategy and collaborative culture can bring to companies both large and small.”