CATIA stands for Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application.

CATIA is the most powerful Knowledge based and widely used CAD software of its kind in the world. CATIA has been created by Dassault Systems of France and is marketed and technically supported world wide by IBM. CATIA has different interactive modules for sketcher, part design, sheet metal design, surface and wire-frame design, assembly design, drafting etc. CATIA is very user friendly and and easy to learn compared with its competitors

CATIA is being used by designers, manufacturing facilities, assemblers, architects, industrial engineers etc CATIA is being used by the majority of automotive and aerospace industries for automobile and aircraft products andits auxiliaries and tooling design. Thousands of engineering companies around the world are using CATIA The most common CATIA users are generally Aerospace, Appliances, Architecture, Automotive, Construction, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Medical, Furniture, Machinery, Mold and Die and Shipbuilding industries. CATIA has played a major role in NASA's design of the various space equipment Besides this CATIA has also been used as vital tool for designing "Jetfighter" aircraft, aircraft carriers, helicopters, tanks and various other forms of weaponry extensively used by the defense sector

87% of civilian/ commercial airplane designers use CATIA. 79% of helicopter designers use CATIA, and 50% of military airplane designers use CATIA. 76% of the world's aircraft designers use CATIA - clearly CATIA is the world standard for aircraft design. 51.6% of all the cars built in 2000 were designed with CATIA. More than all other CAD design engineering products combined together. 14 out of the Top 20 automotive manufacturers use CATIA as their core design system. CATIA 3D product development is now used by 22 of the top 30 global automotive manufacturers and is the de facto global standard in automotive manufacturing

CATIA is used to design a wide variety of products, including pottery, dental equipment, ski boots, artificial limbs, playground equipment, coke bottles, silent compressors, golf clubs, cardiac pumps, virtual reconstruction of a bombed cathedral, etc. Some other industries include, Appliances, Architecture, Construction, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Medical, Furniture, Machinery, Mold and Die, Shipbuilding and Aerospace, CATIA has played a major role in NASA's design of the Space Shuttle. CATIA is used to design pleasure cruisers, yachts, tankers and submarines. 4 out of the top 5 locomotives and rolling stock manufacturers use CATIA. More than 50% of CATIA customers have 5 seats or fewer. The top 10 engineering companies in the Fortune 500 corporations use IBM PLM products and services

Following are just few of the companies now using CATIA in India .
Ashok Leyland Defiance Geometric Goodrich Aerospace HCL Honeywell Infosys InfoTech KPIT Cummins Mahindra Satyam Mahindra Engineering Services Safran Aerospace Tata Technologies TCS Wipro etc.