Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has selected Computervision's CADDS over the IBM/Dassault CATIA as the consortium's future computer-aided-design system. The move to a common electronic product-definition (EPD) system will turn Airbus into a "virtual company", and improve its ability to compete with Boeing, which used CATIA for EPD of the 777, says Computervision.
Worth at least $25 million, the five-year, multi-site, software-licence agreement is the largest in Computervision's history. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based Company's CADDS 5 will replace CATIA software already in use at British Aerospace Airbus and Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus. French Airbus partner Aerospatiale, already a CADDS user, will phase out its use of CATIA, Computervision says.
Airbus short-listed CADDS and CATIA, after an extensive evaluation of competing systems, including EDS' Unigraphics and PTC's ProEngineer. Computervision says that the selected system had to satisfy the different needs of "assembly-focused" Aerospatiale, Airbus wing designer BAe, and "component-focused" DASA.
In addition to CADDS, Airbus will use Computervision's concurrent assembly mock-up software to define the product structure and its Optegra data-management software to handle the movement of design data between companies. Under the agreement, Airbus and Computervision will jointly develop aerospace applications of the US Company's Pelorus Powered next-generation EDP architecture.
Computervision expects the value of the contract to increase as Airbus exercises options to increase the number of sites, add participating partners and suppliers and extend the licence to ten years. CADDS is already used by Rolls-Royce, BMW Rolls-Royce and Shorts (on the Learjet 45 business-jet fuselage).
Source: Flight International
