kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I am a mechanical engineer, and i'm going to focus in aerospace. My ultimate goal is to work for boeing or some sort of aerospace company. I was considering learning AutoCAD but now I don't know. I heard programs like Inventor and Catia are more dominant in the aerospace/mechE industry. Help? I already have a bit of experience in inventor which I did enjoy more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Learn any one or more of the following. Forget AutoCAD. Inventor Solidworks Catia ProEngineer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I would lean toward CATIA in that industry, second maybe Solidworks or ProE (CREO). Usually any MCAD experience will get you in the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Is Catia really that popular? And is there a free student version of it? Would learning Inventor still be a good idea or is it really that necessary I learn Catia? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Ok, I found the student version. So, as a future mechanical/possibly aerospace engineer, what is more beneficial to learn. Autodesk Inventor 2012 or Catia V5? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingneptune117 Posted June 21, 2012 Author Share Posted June 21, 2012 Hey all, Well, I don't know which one to learn. I'm going to be a sophomore soon in mechanical engineering (I would love to do work in the aerospace industry) and am trying to pick a program. I loved working with inventor in the past, and I haven't used either catia or solid works. What will, down the road, be the most beneficial for me to have learned of these three? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Moiceanu Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 For an aerospace engineer you should learn CATIA V5! Airbus, for example, used CATIA to design the Airbus A380 model. And this it's just aN inocent example of what's CATIA capable off. Inventor is used by small to medium companies for small projects, because it is much cheaper than CATIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bishop Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Don't limit yourself to just one. Learn as much as you can about all of them. Of the three, CATIA probably has the highest earning potential, but it also has the most limited user base. You'll be competing against a VERY small pool of talent, but (to stretch the pool metaphor) almost everyone in the pool is an Olympic-class swimmer. I've seen several 6-figure jobs posted for CATIA drafters recently in California. This is what you'll generally see being used at places like GE, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed-Martin, etc. Solidworks has probably the biggest userbase of the three. It seems that more Solidworks positions are out there than Inventor, but there's also a lot more people that know how to use it. (I'm not one of them - I missed out on several jobs by being an Inventor-only guy.) Inventor seems to have fewer jobs available than Solidworks, and from what I can tell in my (admittedly informal) look into such things, there appear to be far fewer Inventor users out there than Solidworks. Recently my company was looking for another Inventor drafter, and had a very difficult time finding anyone with even the most marginal qualifications. We wound up having to settle for someone that had basically a community college class where he used Inventor 2009 for a semester ... back in 2009. He's got a big learning curve to overcome, but he seems to be digging right in and picking things up quite well. He was, however, the most qualified person we could find at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLW210 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I merged your threads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingneptune117 Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 I'm probably the most unexperienced person in this thread right now, but I watched some tutorials on catia...this thing looks ancient and over complicated. Just to extrude a square you gotta exit out of sketching mode and then do all this other stuff. Just my gut feeling, I think inventor is really going to explode over the next few years, which is why i'm gonna work with that I think. It will also help me in my classes more so than catia. Also, I want to be a mechanical engineer, not a drafter. As an engineer, my main job will not be to just draft, it will be to use drafting as one of many tools in my problem solving arsenal. that is why inventor better suits me...i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo Ferral Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Don't ask us - ask the people you want to work for! Seriously, do some research. Find the kind of companies you would like to work for, check out their website and see what they use. If it doesn't say on the website, see if you can find the email address of the CAD manager and send a polite Email to ask them. If you can't find their Email address (or you don't know who the CAD manager is) - phone the company, explain your question and politely ask for the CAD managers name and work address. Then write them a good old fashioned made of trees paper letter! Think of this as an opportunity. Your training won't win you a job. You have lots of competition. Q: Why would a company employ you - above all the other candidates? A: because they trust you. But why would they trust you if they don't know you? This sort of question is a great opener, and a good way to start a relationship with the people who work at a company - waaaaay before you apply for a job. And remember, once you've made contact - keep in touch. Don't hassle them, but maybe two or three times a year, send an email letting them know how you are getting on with your training. This ensures that, when they are leafing through a pile of CV's - your name will stand out. Oh - and, I would say that, to begin with, it doesn't matter which parametric solid modeller you learn. They all do the same thing (More or less), just with different tools & interfaces. Your time won't be wasted. Specialize once you know what industry sector or company you want to work for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Make sure you get into Environments>FEA and Environments>Dynamic Simulation areas of the product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoe2exp Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 "I am a mechanical engineer, and i'm going to focus in aerospace. My ultimate goal is to work for boeing or some sort of aerospace company. I was considering learning AutoCAD but now I don't know. I heard programs like Inventor and Catia are more dominant in the aerospace/mechE industry. Help? I already have a bit of experience in inventor which I did enjoy more. " I am a mechanical engineer as well that works on the aerospace industry. I have done so for the last 7 years specilizing in interiors and systems. I am experienced on Airbus and Boeing OEM designs. I've used Autocad for 7 years, CATIA for 5 and Inventor for 1.5 years. Based on my experience and my friends' I would recommend you the following software for you to learn: - Catia V5 (Try to learn Macros/CATIA programming if you can - there is a lot of money there) - SolidWorks - Autocad Boeing, Airbus and many of their suppliers use CATIA. CATIA is the way to go if you want to stay around and thrive in the aerospace industry. That is just how it is and that is where the money is. SW and ACAD are still used by much of the rest of suppliers so it would be good to learne them in order to appeal to a broader range of companies. Inventor is rarely used and I would not recommend spending any time on it. The main reason some companies use it is because it is cheap and the products they manufacture are not complex enough to justify an investment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoe2exp Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 I'm probably the most unexperienced person in this thread right now, but I watched some tutorials on catia...this thing looks ancient and over complicated. Just to extrude a square you gotta exit out of sketching mode and then do all this other stuff. Just my gut feeling, I think inventor is really going to explode over the next few years, which is why i'm gonna work with that I think. It will also help me in my classes more so than catia. Also, I want to be a mechanical engineer, not a drafter. As an engineer, my main job will not be to just draft, it will be to use drafting as one of many tools in my problem solving arsenal. that is why inventor better suits me...i think. So, you are saying that a (CATIA) software package capable of designing and maintaining a whole Airbus A380 and the Boeing Dreamliner (structures, systems, interiors, plumbing, electrical systems, etc, etc,) will be dethroned by a cheap (compared to the rest) software that can barely do crippled wireframe, does no surfacing, does a bad job on creating and maintaining links, has no way of organizing reference geometry, Makes top down design a pain, and has never dreamed of complex skeleton modeling? They are just in different leagues, but I will patiently wait for that day. In Aerospace, as a Design Engineer your job is to produce an efficient design that will interact with thousands of other parts with as little problems as possible *before* production starts. All the designs are aprroved in 3d Model state, so if you can't model you will have a hard time competing with others. Airbus, Boeing and many other OEMs and their suppliers have concluded that CATIA is the right tool for their design and integration of their aircraft for a reason. If you land a job with Boeing or Airbus, they will send you to learn CATIA anyway. Knowing it already will probably help you in the interview though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Mather Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 aoe2exp You should get some experience before offering your opinion. You might know something about CATIA - but the evidence here indicates you know next to nothing about Inventor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoe2exp Posted November 27, 2012 Share Posted November 27, 2012 aoe2exp You should get some experience before offering your opinion. You might know something about CATIA - but the evidence here indicates you know next to nothing about Inventor. I am no expert, but I do have some actual working experience. Perhaps you can illustrate us how Inventor stacks up to CATIA on complex tasks done in Aerospace since that is the topic of the OP and following posts by the OP. I have used Inventor enough to conclude that Stitch, Patch, and 3d sketch are no replacement to the dedicated CATIA workbenches (some at extra charge). Adaptive geometry can not compare to the depth CATIA takes linking and Relational Modeling to the point of resizing a whole lavatory (including fastener size/location) with a few inputs. But I will let you illustrate this to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazer Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Aoe2exp, lets not have a showdown and hijack this thread on what Inventor and Catia can do! I suggest you start a new thread if you wish to continue with this topic .. and JD don't take the bait! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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