Which CAD Software is Most Widely Used in Aerospace Engineering?

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CATIA, SolidWorks, and CREO are the most widely used CAD software in aerospace engineering, with CATIA being particularly prevalent in the industry for parametric modeling. SolidWorks is favored for 3D model construction, while ANSYS is recommended for intense analysis and finite element modeling (FEM). ABAQUS is preferred by structures engineers for finite element analysis, although custom code is also utilized in some cases. NASTRAN is a longstanding general-purpose finite element program that can handle various analysis types. Ultimately, the choice of software often depends on the specific modeling challenges faced by engineers.
Monsterboy
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What are the CAD and analysis softwares most widely used by Aerospace engineers?
 
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CATIA provides enough CAD/CAM/CAE solutions,I'm a aerospace graduate and have been using it for my projects, i'd also like to suggest SOLID WORKS & CREO for faster modelling solutions, if you want to do intense analysis of a model ANSYS is recommended.
 
We use SolidWorks in my department. CATIA seems to be common in industry. (At least for parametric modeling...)

The structures people here like ABAQUS for FEA. For certain cases custom code is also used. I'm not a structures person.
 
What about NX CAD ,NASTRAN?
 
Never heard of NX CAD.

NASTRAN has been around for ages. It is a general purpose FE program. Can be used for structural analysis, but it can also tackle other field problems by solving PDEs using a finite element procedure.
 
From what I've seen SolidWorks is common for the construction of 3d models, but it isn't great for actual FEM. For FEM work, a lot of the people I know use Ansys.
 
It ultimately depends on the actual, concrete modeling problem that you are trying to solve.
 
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