Dassault Systèmes

Dassault Systèmes S.A. is the world's leading developer of CAD/CAM/CAE (computer-assisted design, manufacturing, engineering) software, with a product family of more than 120 interrelated component software packages enabling the implementation of design, analysis, manufacturing, and post-production support systems tailored to clients' specific needs. Dassault's CATIA and CADAM software products permit engineering and product design teams, generally working across a network, to develop prototype products, as well as to provide software-based modeling, assembly, testing, analysis and other procedures using three-dimensional images, eliminating the expense of building physical models and prototypes during a product's initial design phase. Beyond the design and engineering of a product, the company's software enables clients to develop and implement full-scale manufacturing systems, while also providing post-production support capacity, including quality assurance and product data generation. One of the originators of the three-dimensional CAD/CAM/CAE market, Dassault has sold some 100,000 'seats,' or licenses, of its CATIA and CADAM software products, to more than 10,000 clients worldwide. In the 1990s, the company's software has been used to develop seven out of every ten new airplanes and four out of every ten new cars worldwide, including those from such corporations as Dassault Aviation, Boeing, Aerospatiale, BMW, Chrysler, Peugeot, Honda, Lockheed Martin, and others. CATIA has been used to design such products as Chrysler's Voyager minivans, RAM pickups, and Viper and Neon automobiles. Aircraft designed using CATIA include the Boeing 777, the Falcon 2000 business jet, and the Rafale jet fighter plane from Dassault Aviation. In addition to the aerospace and automotive/transportation industries, Dassault's primary markets include consumer goods, with clients such as Black & Decker, Electrolux, and Sony; plant design and shipbuilding, with clients including General Dynamics and Technip; and fabrication and assembly, with clients including ABB, Staubli, and Valmet. Dassault's CATIA and CADAM product family forms the core of the company's development efforts. Users of the linked CATIA and CADAM system can achieve an end-to-end product development process from initial product specification, design and testing, through engineering analysis, to full-scale manufacturing utilizing a sole systems-wide interface, database, and programming set. Product development employs simultaneous solid-body, surface, and wireframe rendering. The use of both parametric modeling--in which the entire process responds to a series of fixed parameters--and variation modeling, which enables the ability to apply changes to individual components--for example, for customization purposes--without being required to redefine the entire parameter set, offers users sophisticated 'next-generation' flexibility in the design and post-design processes. The integration of CAE and CAM processes within the CAD process enable not only sophisticated stress and meshing analysis, but also the concurrent definition of the manufacturing process. The fully integrated CAD/CAM/CAE system enables manufacturers to eliminate costly physical modeling steps, improve quality control procedures, and achieve a more efficient and faster design&ndashø&ndash′oduct development system. In addition, the integration of manufacturing processes in the design phase provides the ability to avoid the need to retool the production process, as the early design phase of a product can be adapted to the manufacturer's existing machine park. Finally, CATIA and CADAM users have access to the system's knowledge base capacity, providing access to product and specification history, as well as the integration of industry standards, regulatory requirements, and the client's own specifications throughout the design and manufacturing process. In addition to its CATIA-CANAM product families, Dassault also devel