catia on linux 1

[ddurant7]

Someone wrote that MS and D'Assault are deeply linked and I wonder, how deeply, how do you know? Can you prove it? Simple reason Catia won't be released for linux: This would create competition for windows in the CAD market, and they can't have that. People are running it under wine, so there is proof that there is interest. Isn't this proof of collusion between the two companies, monopoly abuse, and therefore illegal?

I have an HP xw4600 with 8 GB ram. UGNX runs on it under linux. Xp can't see the extra 4 GB ram. So it only makes sense to run it as an NX only box for now. Too bad for D'assault.

 

[DBezaire]

My Dell Precision T7400 with 16GB ram runs fantastic with Catia R18 and R19. There are times I use 12-14 GB with multiple jobs loaded. It costs some major $$$ to port software to multiple OS. There probably was a business case internal to Dassault that justifies no linux or mac. Have you checked out market share lately, I really don't think they are hurting for business.

 

[ddurant7]

So what operating system are you running? How did you get it to see all that extra ram? Using the PAE switch? It may cost some major $$$ to port software, but catia started out on Unix, and V5 runs on unix. The business case not to provide only windows seems to have come from Microsoft telling D'assault not to port to any of Unix, Linux, or Mac. It isn't like the entire engineering world forgot about *n*x. The vast majority of systems on the top500 list run linux or unix. The only entry Microsoft had was in China, at #10, and that system fell 5 places the last time around. Just take a look at Vista and see just how huge of a mistake Microsoft is capable of making. All other CAE and electronic design software that I can think of runs on linux. It's more like Microsoft found a willing partner / bribe recipient, and paid them off *not* to abandon windows, leaving them with nothing. Everyone is assuming windows 7 is going to be a huge hit, so we'll see.

 

[ddurant7]

Oh I just figured something out. You probably have a 64-bit machine. I have a 32-bit machine. That' probably the difference.

 

[CEROG]

it is not correect to say that each CAD system runs under linux, except CATIA. There are many others which do not run under linux.
I found some information that HP XW 4600 has a 64Bit processor. So you should switch to 64 bit...



CEROGs CATIA Blog(German):

http://www.cad-gaenssler.de/de/cerogs-catia-blog.html

 

[catiajim]

One problem with Unix is that AIX is not Solaris is not HPUX is not Unix. And Linux is not Unix either. They are all related operating systems that are similar, especially at the shell level (the shell is actually a program running on top of the OS). But they are not the same at an executable level.

While CATIA V4 was developed on Unix, CATIA V5 was developed on Windows. It runs best on windows. CATIA V5 running on a Unix platform is actually running under an "emulator". Actually, there is a "wrapper" around the CATIA kernal that intercepts Windows calls and translates them to the appropriate unix call for that flavor of unix. This, by definition, makes CATIA slower. You may not see this, because you would need to look at other factors such as compute speed, etc.

The primary reason that they have not ported CATIA to Linux is that no (major) customer has stated "I will not purchase CATIA unless it runs on Linux". While they may prefer Linux, they won't refuse it on Windows. The Microsoft connection may be strong, but if they saw serious money behind a Linux port, they would do it.

CATIA running on a 64 bit processor and a 64 bit OS (XP 64) WILL use more than 4gb of RAM quite nicely.

And PS, it's not D'Assault. It's Dassault Systemes (accent grave on the second e).

 

[ddurant7]

I'm talking about circuit design. Software that electrical engineers use, is all ported to Linux, and it went straight from UNIX to Linux. A major customer (Audi) did tell Dassault Systemes they would not use Catia unless it ran on Linux, and Dassault Systemes told them tough luck, and Audi said fine, and they use something else. So far as I know, maybe something has changed. Unless you don't count Audi as a major customer.

 

[ddurant7]

Here is the link:

http://www.hoise.com/primeur/06/articles/live/LV-PL-06-06-28.html

If you can find something to the contrary, I'd be happy to hear about it.

 

[ddurant7]

So what language are these apps written in? x86 assembly? C? C++? Visual C++? .net? Everyone says, catia was developed under windows, it runs best under windows. I don't dispute that. But NX runs under windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS. Was NX developed under one or the other, and runs terribly on the non-native platform then? Anything written in x86 assembly or C or C++ was assemble or compile just as easily under *n*x as in windows. Automotive designers just seem to love windows. If catia was written in some Microsoft specific language, then sure, it would be slower under *n*x. But then Dassault is locking themselves in to one platform, and things do change in this business. It still seems like more of an attempt to force people to stay with windows who might otherwise run on something else, than a "we can't compile it to run under Unix/Linux/Mac OS". BS. If they wanted to, they could. Why did Siemens do it?

 

[DBezaire]

Well, I guess somebody at the parent company VW made Hans of Audi see the light. Audi is in sync with VW running R19 SP3 HF20_2009_06. Legacy catia version R16 SP09 for electrical and SP05 for general.

http://www.supplier-collaboration-center.com

 

[catiajim]

The article that you reference (from 2006) talks mainly about processing the analysis of simulations. This is a primarily non-graphic process, and as such, I agree it should be pretty easy to port over to Linux - in fact we would love to be able to process the analysis in batch on our Linux Cluster. Some of CATIA's analysis tools are far superior to anything else we have (specifically the analysis of assemblies).
we don't want to run the interactive portion on Linux, we just want to perform the actual analysis on Linux.