Hi Catia and Alias are different softwares.Catia is more for Engineering uses and Alias is one of the best car modeling softwares for designers.I have not worked with Catia but check the portfolio below to see some alias work by Erick Martinez:
I agree with Dave Vakili & speling. I will just add to answer your questions, you can sketch in alias without tablet. With autostudio version witch is the designer's version of alias. You will find many tools to quickly made any model you want and you will get very good quality surface.
About your first question in short: Not necessarily yes if you are a mechanical engineer and don't deal with aesthetic and class-A surfaces everyday. Catia gives you one of the best hybrid modeling environment to work with wireframes, solids, mesh, and high quality surfaces in one package if you have necessary modules in Catia. If you are concerned with class-A surfacing and if you can afford, keeping Alias with Catia is a good idea otherwise it's not necessarily a 'must' if you have enough experience with Catia's own class-A surface modeler which is a powerful technical surfacing tool. ICEM(a leading class-A surfacing specialist) is developing the Catia's next generation of class-A surface modeler which would be significantly improved in next releases. Good news if you are going to stick with Catia.
Its the best when ICEM SURF reads and writes Catia Part files. ICEM is a Gold partner working with Catia. The Best solids and BEST Surfacing Software together.
Catia is not as flexible as Alias. You would spend most of your time and energy on getting a surface. Whereas in alias you can tryout many options and fine tune the result to your design intent. IMO, Catia is useless for creative design intent work, but good for production level work.
Catia Vs Alias you might be right but not with ICEM inside of Catia.
Link below is Alias green truck square front end the brought into ICEM and Morphed for styling and CFD. The Square truck is from Ford Alias concept modeling class last April at Ford PDC. The second green truck (ICEM) bent corners in 10 mills and the Hood morphed bent down 20 mills. Then CNC Milled and painted blue the Morphed Truck.
Alias users are going to claim Alias is the best. Catia users are going to say Catia is the best. I-deas users are going to say the same for I-deas, as well as UG/NX users about UG/NX.
Want an unbiased answer? It all depends on what you're modeling, how the model will be used downstream, and if you require solid or surface models. I've demo'd just about every CAD software that's made and ALL of them have drawbacks one way or another when compared to one another.
Alias is tough to beat as a surface modeler, but that logic slams into a brick wall once solids are introduced into the equation. I'd be hard pressed to vote against Catia or UG/NX, given my experience. I've used NX for well over 10 years and it's a really good software and has a module that I feel is quite comparable to Alias to a certain extent. However it is missing some key things that Alias has for matching continuity. When it comes to making large slab surfaces, they're all about the same.
I've learned over the years that if you are critical about the curves used to create surfaces, then you will have a much easier time creating high quality surfaces. Surfacing is sort of a garbage in/garbage out operation. If your curves are low quality, don't expect your resulting surfaces to be much better.
Incidentally, all softwares mentioned have been used for final styling by many different auto makers....even the so-called mechanical modelers.
Catia isn't the best surface modeler by a long shot. Catia, NX, SolidWorks (same as Catia), Inventor, etc are all best left for CAD data.
At my firm, we use both a para modeler and a solid modeler. The cool thing is that there are a few formats which seamlessly transfer back and forth (though model data is lost when importing into a solid modeler due to the number of variables).
Here we use Alias alongside Inventor. Inventor is great for mechanical assmeblies and interfacing with ANSYS, FLUENT, ADAMS, where as Alias is a fantastic conceptual design platform with free-hand sketching as part of the package.
To go into ANSYS or FLUENT, you'll need to see what export functions you have and then see what you can pull in. It heavily depends on which ANSYS you're using... the ICEM system takes all sorts of meshes, where as the solid assocative systems like the SAT, IGES (though a surface), STEP, etc files.
I would invest in Alias for surfacing models
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. "I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself." - Dr. Ferry Porsche
If someone called Catia or NX useless tools for surface modelling or considered them in the same level of Solidworks or Inventor and the like, he or she has no experience with the two mentioned earlier as far as technical surfacing is concerned. Only a high level of experience and familiarity with these products based on practical use in real world projects can give someone an exact idea of the power and functionalities of the software. You need to have almost equal level of experience with more than one of these products to make a real comparison between them for yourself instead of relying on unreliable reviews and opinions on the net. Otherwise consult an expert or a guru and see them in action using any of those products for a real job if you could get the opportunity. If you’ve mastered a software and you can do almost anything with it, it is natural you believe the software of your choice is the best. If your software can do anything you want, it is the best for you and if you can do anything you want with some of them you are so much privileged.
