by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.com
SolidWorks-Catia conversions have been the source of much consternation among users, most of whom don't understand how two programs owned by the same company (Dassault Systemes) won't talk to each other.
CAD blogger Josh Mings has reported on Dassault's CATIA-to-SolidWorks converter that costs $3,000 upfront, plus another $1,000/year for maintenance. I couldn't find it on Dassault's site or SolidWorks' site, but I should not be surprised. It's not something that Dassault is likely to promote, maybe for fear that it will cause a mass migration to the cheaper product (SolidWorks).
Into the void come a few companies offering the much needed conversion, either with expensive off-the-shelf software (can Elysium really charge $10,000?), or cheapo apps by little known companies that will probably waste your time, or data translation specialists who offer to customize a solution (you can imagine what that might cost!).
But in a most unlikely place -- the annual gathering of NX and TeamCenter users in Dallas, TX --the solution to the SolidWorks-Catia interoperability conundrum presents itself when I pay a visit to the CCE booth.
CCE is a heavyweight in the interoperability arena. They have a labs site from which they are determined to give away software. It's like Autodesk Labs, though on a smaller scale; in fact, there are only four products available: two are CAD viewers, one of which handles large assemblies.
But most important is a bidirectional SolidWorks-Catia translator in 32- and 64-bit versions. It's free. You do have to log in using Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter so that CCE ends up with a way to contact you, but isn't this a small price to pay for solving a longtime source of frustration -- or as an alternative to pricey or shady alternatives?
[Reprinted with permission of CAD Insider.]
Sandy @CADcrush Is CCE a "dumb" geo SW-CATIA translator? Or do you get the parametrics and meta data too? Didn't v6 solve this issue?
Debankan @DebankanC Our translator product does not transfer features/parametrics. But neither does Dassault's own prod. Even better, ours is free!
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