Why You Should Outsource Your CATIA Design

As most engineers know, CATIA is a really tough program to use. It’s one of the least user-friendly, which makes it a hard CAD program to make a high-quality design on. For that reason (and many others), engineering departments are choosing to outsource their CATIA designs. These companies are saving time and money, and you can as well.

In this guide, we’ll explain exactly how that works. We’ll start with a quick definition, then we’ll explain 8 benefits of outsourcing your CATIA design to a high-quality company like ours at CAD/CAM Services.

What Is Outsourced CATIA Design?

Outsourced CATIA design entails hiring an outside company to perform CAD work on your behalf. Our company at CAD/CAM Services specializes in outsourced CAD work, and all of our money comes from performing engineering and CAD work for companies just like yours.

We typically operate on a per-project basis, meaning that you’ll pay us to complete a specific set of CATIA drawings or models. We send the final files to you, have alignment meetings with your team, and ensure that everything is perfect.

While we offer a lot of services, our CATIA design service specifically refers to performing and delivering 3D models within CATIA. We can start from scratch with nothing more than a napkin sketch, or you can provide a rudimentary CATIA file that you need to be optimized and cleaned up.

Why You Should Outsource Your CATIA Design

Why do so many engineering departments choose to outsource their CATIA design work? There are a lot of reasons. Here are a few major reasons that might compel you to outsource your next CATIA project.

CATIA Has a Steep Learning Curve

If you’ve used CATIA, then you already know how tricky the software is. As far as CAD programs go, it’s one of the least user-friendly, and it has the steepest learning curve. We know from experience, since our team of outsourced engineers has experience with every major CAD program on the market.

If you’re already coming up to your deadline, you don’t have time to train your engineers in CATIA. Getting to be a CATIA expert can take months, but it really takes years to learn all the idiosyncrasies.

But, all of these problems go away when you outsource your CATIA design. Our engineers have already gone through the tough learning curve, so we’re ready to deliver expert-level designs without any more practice or training.

A Well-Made Design Will Save Time and Money During Fabrication

Many companies don’t realize how much time and money can be saved on fabrication by simply optimizing the design. Something as simple as changing the thickness of your part from a random number to a nominal number can easily save hours of machining effort. This directly translates to lower manufacturing costs and faster turnarounds.

Of course, having an expert handle your CATIA design work is a great way to optimize your parts for manufacturing. Our team always uses design for manufacturing (DFM) best practices in an effort to save you time and money on each production run.

What if you’re designing a CATIA part that needs to be injection molded, 3D printed, or urethane cast? Not a problem. Our team can handle that too, just tell us at the onset of the project and we’ll utilize DFM efforts for whichever manufacturing style you’re planning on using.

Trust Experts for CAD Perfect Results

We’ve mentioned it a few times, but it’s worth repeating: our team at CAD/CAM Services is full of experts. Our team has worked on massive projects for Fortune 500 companies, government projects, and tons of high-tech aircraft. We have the expertise and experience that your project deserves.

An expert-level engineer can solve problems in your design that you don’t even realize you have. Engineering is just one of those careers where experience makes a huge difference in each design.

It’s Typically Faster and Less Expensive to Outsource

Most of our clients report back that outsourcing through CAD/CAM Services is less expensive and faster than if they were to do the same CATIA design in-house. How is that even possible? For starters, you don’t have to pay our staff a salary — you’re just paying a per-hour or per-drawing rate since we’re working as contractors for you.

On top of that, our team has more than 100 engineers and draftsmen on it. We work around the clock in order to provide 24/7 engineering coverage. This allows us to send final drawings within less than 24 hours of our initial conversation with you.

Get Dynamic, Parametric Models

We’ve worked on a lot of projects that required fully parametric models. This is a CATIA model where you can change the whole shape of a part by changing a few dimensions. Our engineers are trained in creating parametric models that you can use as part templates — this simple difference can save you so much time.

Let’s say you sell ten different brackets that are different sizes with holes in different places. If we set up a parametric model, you would just need to input ten series of numbers, and you’ll be left with all ten brackets in a matter of minutes.

Limit Iterations and Avoid Headaches

Beginner engineers tend to make simple mistakes. This could be due to a misunderstanding of how CATIA works, or just a small mistake associated with the project itself. These mistakes lead to more design iterations, wasted time, and more money down the drain.

By outsourcing your CATIA design to an experienced company, we can avoid these headaches. Our team knows exactly how to make CAD Perfect drawings that work on the first attempt. Outsourcing through us will prevent all of these added iterations, and they’ll leave you with fewer headaches.

Unlock Meaningful Non-Destructive Test Results

CATIA has a suite of non-destructive test (NDT) simulations available for purchase, but it’s not cheap. In fact, most companies only purchase the basic license package of CATIA which does not involve any of these simulations.

In other words, you’ll need to spend thousands of dollars to just start a simulation, then you’ll need hundreds of hours of free time to learn how to run high-quality and effective simulations. Alternatively, you can simply trust an outsourced engineer to perform this task.

Get Your Product to Market Faster

If you’re designing a new product, it’s likely that you really care about how quickly it hits the market. By outsourcing, you can speed up the full process from initial design work to final production.

Our team will produce CATIA design files faster than your in-house engineers, we’ll make parts that can be manufactured quicker, and our manufacturing drawings will result in less confusion and fewer questions from whatever machine shop you choose.

The result? Faster time to market, regardless of what your part is.

Conclusion

As you just learned, outsourcing your CATIA design project is a great way to save time, save money, avoid headaches, and get better results. Our team at CAD/CAM Servies is here to help you with any CATIA projects that you have, regardless of how large or small.

Need a simple table designed? Not a problem. Looking for a complex CATIA model of a new aircraft? We can handle that too. Reach out to us and get a free quote today.