This post is inspired by an old post on the COE discussion forums about CATIA myths or common practices that were accepted as standards but were no longer needed due to software improvements. The two examples I can remember are:
Designers would work in a secondary body and then perform a boolean add to add the geometry to the main PartBody. This became a standard practice because the "Change PartBody" command was not introduced until R9 and before that it was more difficult to clear out features from the main PartBody.
Many companies disable and block hybrid design mode. I read that a large aerospace company had issues with their CNC programming when using parts designed with hybrid mode.
During my time working with CATIA, I have come across several other practices that have been presented as facts, but I haven't seen any evidence to back them up. These include:
- Surface modeling is more lightweight and efficient than solid modeling
- Having CATIA reference settings on a network drive or cloud storage can negatively impact performance
- Using boolean operations improves part performance
- Using assembly constraints/engineering connections creates heavier/slower assemblies
In 2026 I would like to challenge some of these beliefs and see if they are actually true or not. Does any one else have a belief about CATIA that they haven't validated or proven?
