Advanced Computer Aided Design

A Usability Study Comparing CATIA

And SolidWorks Software

A White Paper by Jesse Caudle

April 17, 2015

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Introduction:
This white paper reports the outcomes of a usability test on two types of advanced computer
aided design software, CATIA and SolidWorks.
CATIA is an advanced software used by some larger corporations such as Boeing to perform
advanced 3D modeling and testing. The program is geared to more complex modeling and
computation. SolidWorks is a commonly known modeling software used by many institutions
such as the University of Idaho to teach basic solid modeling. It is also one of the more popular
design software and offers tests to become certified in the program. Both programs require
licensing to use but offer discounts to businesses buying in bulk or schools using previous
versions as a teaching tool.
Typical users of these products are generally design engineers or students learning about
computer aided design. They will use computer aided design to help model, test, and create
parts and systems for a variety of different tasks. Having knowledge with both programs, I
performed a cognitive walkthrough and tested each of them in different areas that are
important when using a solid modeling software.

Methods:
The tests were completed in an advanced computer lab at the University of Idaho. To avoid any
discontinuities within the testing, the same computer was used for testing both programs. The
testing took place at 12:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 15. Both programs were tested in the
2014 model.
Each test consisted of 7 parts and was ranked based off of the criteria listed below. Each task
was based off of an essential step in the design process, and is important to be able to perform
within these software programs.

Tasks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Start a new part after opening the program

Fully define a sketch
Create a part based off of simple shapes and features
Adjust appearances on the part
Create an Assembly, add parts and fully constrain them
Create a realistic render of a part
Create a drawing package for a part

Criteria:
Each task was rated using a Likert scale shown on the next page. The rating was broken into
three parts based on the main criteria points given in the scale.

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(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
SolidWorks
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
SolidWorks
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
SolidWorks

Results:
The results for each task are given below. They were performed and listed in the same way as
shown previously. Images supporting observations will be given and clarified in the description
of each of the tasks.

Task 1: Start a new part after opening the program

Catia:
Upon opening the program, there is nothing directly pulled up and no option is there to start
something new. To open a new part, I needed to go to the start menu within the program and
navigate myself to Mechanical Design and then Part Design. This is not hard to do but for
someone new to the program the start menu can be very confusing for there is a large variety
of toolbars to select. After clicking the button, the program asks to name the part and then
everything was ready for modeling. The process was fairly quick and did not require many
steps.
SolidWorks:
When opening SolidWorks, the program is very welcoming, giving me the immediate option to
create a new part, assembly or drawing. This can be seen in the image provided. From there all
that I needed to do was save the part to name it and begin the modeling process. This is
probably the easiest it could be for
starting a new part and it is very user
friendly for all levels of knowledge.

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(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Task 2: Fully define a sketch

Catia:
Creating the sketch is fairly straight forward. The
tools are all located on the side bar and the icons
are pretty clear on what each tool does. The only
small annoyance is that in order to create
multiple lines or dimensions one must double
click on the tool before using it. Other than that
the program is very intuitive and helps the user by
automatically adding relationships based on the
way you draw the lines or shapes. This snapshot
shows how the multiple relations make it less
work to define a sketch and also how the
programs color coded lines make it easy for
seeing what lines still need to be defined. The
program does a good job at trying to help out the
user.
SolidWorks:
Similar to Catia, SolidWorks helped let me
know if I had over and under defined lines by
color coding them. When I added too many
dimensions to the sketch, a warning sign
immediately popped up letting me know I
had gone too far. All of the tools were
conveniently located at the top so finding
the right tool was not a challenge. Overall
defining a sketch in SolidWorks took little to
no time to complete and notified me if I
made a mistake.

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(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Task 3: Create a part based off of simple shapes and features

Catia and SolidWorks:
When creating basic shapes and parts in these programs, there was little to no difference in
difficulty or method. Both programs have a sidebar showing all of the features that can be used
to make the different shapes and both have design trees that communicate how many features
have been applied and allow the user to edit past work. This test was the most straight forward
for both programs and for this test each took less than two minutes to complete. In general
both of these programs can model parts very quickly and efficiently once a sketch has been
made or designed. More complex parts may vary in time.
(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Task 4: Adjust appearances on the part

Catia:
This was one of the most difficult tests to perform in Catia, adding colors and features is not very
convenient and can be very time consuming. In Catia everything is based off of the material of the part.
Although it is fairly simple to add a material, editing the colors of the material requires you to go into
the materials properties and it can be very confusing. I also ran into issues with features/faces having
different colors than one another. Each face had to have its properties changed and if a material was
selected, that appearance overrides the others.

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SolidWorks:
In SolidWorks, adding appearances and material to a part is very intuitive and it provides you
with so many options that it is hard to be displeased. When performing this test all I needed to
do was select the appearance button on the design tree and the appearance toolbar came up.
This was very handy for it provides the user with all the information they need in order to
properly apply the appearances needed. The picture below shows what the program looks like
when these toolbars are open. On the right it provides a nice visual of all the materials while on
the left it lets the user edit the color, texture, and features to apply it too. This was the most
enjoyable test to perform and helps making realistic parts easy.

(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

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Task 5: Create an Assembly, add parts and fully constrain them

Catia:
Starting a new assembly in
Catia is very similar to
starting a new part. This
made it very easy to get
started. But once I had added
the parts I wanted into the
assembly, it was hard to
move and constrain them the
way I wanted. To move each
part, the compass has to be
dragged to the part and then
that controls that part. This
can make it easy to place a
part in the general area
desired but the extra steps makes assemblies time consuming. The other area I had issues with
was adding the constraints. I found it very difficult to make sure that a part is fully constrained
as well as ensure that the direction and faces of the constraints were going the right way.
Although the program was not inconvenient overall, it was not very intuitive to the user.

SolidWorks:
Performing this test was also not very easy in SolidWorks, but the program led me to fewer
errors than with Catia. Starting the assembly was fairly simple. SolidWorks took the part that
was already opened and used that as the starting part, helping me skip a step. After it was
open, it automatically fixed the first part in place so I did not have to constrain it and worked as
a base part in the assembly. From there SolidWorks had many similarities to Catia for there was
not a great way to position the newly added parts. One aspect that made the testing easier was
that the constraining toolbars were very detailed and made the constraints easy to understand
and perform.

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(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Task 6: Create a realistic render of a part

Catia:
Through this task I found that Catia is not a very great program for creating renders but they
can be fairly simple to make. Just like all feature toolbars in Catia, it can be hard to find at first
but after exposure it becomes easier. The most difficult part of rendering is setting a good
scene and lighting. I did not have many issues here, but the quality of the environment is not
the best. It was then fairly easy to make a snapshot for Catia allows the user to edit a variety of
different features before taking a render. Taking the actual picture was simple too, and only
required a click of the button. Here is an image of the final step in taking the render.

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SolidWorks:
Opening the toolbar to create a render in SolidWorks
was a hassle. It can be somewhat of a puzzle to find and
then the loading time for the tools to appear can be
long. Once in the right toolbar, SolidWorks makes it
easy to adjust how the image is going to look by editing
the image and lighting in the left toolbar as seen in the
image. From there the only issue I had in creating the
render was the time it took to process the image.
Because there are so many variables the program takes
into account, the image can take quite some time to
render and may even crash the program. While
performing this test, my render took roughly 5 minutes
to process.
(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Task 7: Create a drawing package for a part

Catia:
Starting the drawing was very straight forward. All I needed
to do was to go to the drafting toolbar when the part was
open. It was also very easy to add views, the view creation
wizard has preset views you can use that make it easier to
make the basic isometric views. I ran into trouble adding
the Template for the drawing page. I could get it open
separately but not with the parts on the drawing. This took
a lot of unnecessary time searching the help to figure it
out.

SolidWorks:
Drawings in SolidWorks are as easy to start as a part or an assembly. I also was able to add a
design template right away. The program asked me which template to add or to find one by
browsing my computer. Adding views was a little tedious for each view can create other views
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hooked to them. Fortunately I was able to add them one at a time and largely avoided this
problem. From there, defining the sketch was as simple as selecting the baseline dimensioning
tool and selecting the parts to define.
(5) Strongly
(4) Agree
(3) Neutral
(2) Disagree
(1) Strongly
Agree
Disagree
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
X
SolidWorks
X

Results Summary:
1. Completing the task was intuitive and required little time searching for the correct tools.
Catia
Total = 22
SolidWorks
Total = 27
2. The task itself was simple and quick to perform within the software.
Catia
Total = 26
SolidWorks
Total = 30
3. The task was completed with minimal errors or speed bumps preventing completion.
Catia
Total = 25
SolidWorks
Total = 29
Grand Total = 73
Grand Total = 86

Recommendation:
Each of the two programs would be very useful to any company needing advanced modeling
software. In regards to usability, SolidWorks is a much friendlier program to novice and
experienced users. Both programs are very capable at designing and creating images and
drawings for parts and assemblies, but SolidWorks makes the process go much faster and
provides the user with small hints and convenient tools to get the job done effectively and
efficiently. Although each program has its areas where it performs the greatest, in regards to
the tasks performed within this usability test, I would recommend SolidWorks to any company
or person seeking an intuitive and powerful computer aided design software.

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