PLM-CAD Tools

The PLM-CAD Service at CERN provides several different tools and functionalities. These tools/functionalities can be divided into three big categories: the CAD tools which allow to produce computer-aided designs, the CAD Viewers which allow to visualize and print the designs to other formats and the Checking & Converting tools which check the quality, consistency and accuracy of the designs.

Below you can explore more in detail each one of these categories as well as the tools included in them. Click on each tool to know more about it.

CATIA V5 is, together with its local data management system PLM, CERN’s main platform for mechanical CAD. After an initial pilot project, CATIA was put in production at CERN in 2005 and, by the end of 2008, fully replaced the old tool, Euclid.

CATIA is a modern parametric 3D CAD system widely used in industry. It is an all-in-one multidisciplinary CAD tool with dedicated modules for many specific trades such as mechanical design, cabling, FEA, machining, ergonomics, etc. Such modules, called workbenches in CATIA, are deployed on-demand and prioritized according to the number of users requesting them.

Summary of Tools

CATIA, like all modern 3D-CAD systems, generates a large amount data and files with many references between them. In order to manage and control all such links between CAD models, drawings and other data, a dedicated data management tool is therefore always used.

For CATIA, this data management tool is called PLM which, like CATIA, is a product from Dassault Systèmes, ensuring a tight integration between the two applications. PLM has been fully deployed at CERN in coordination with the different design offices and it is now integrated with CERN EDMS.

Below in the Figure, you can see what is the workflow of a Product Lifecycle Management at CERN, including all the tools used.