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Optimizing HP-UX for CATIA

A White Paper On Getting The Best PerformanceFrom Distributed CATIA On Your

HEWLETTPACKARD

HP 9000 Workstation

Revision 2.1

Prepared By:

Alfred P. TOUSSAINT, Jr.Technical Consulting Lab

Hewlett-Packard Company300 Apollo Drive

Chelmsford, MA 01824 U.S.A.

(508) 436-4541 FAX (508) 436-5142e-mail: [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Optimizing HP-UX for CATIA

A White Paper On Getting The Best Performance

From Distributed CATIA On Your HP 9000 Workstation

HP Publication No. 0000-00000

Printed in USA July 1995

Revision 2.1

Legal Notices

The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Hewlett- Packard makes no

warranty of any kind with regard to this material including but not limited to the implied warranties of

merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors

contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing,

performance or use of this

material.

Revision History:

Revision 1.0 7 March 1995

Revision 2.0 17 July 1995

Revision 2.1 19 July 1995

Copyright/Trademarks

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

(c) Copyright 1995 Hewlett-Packard Co. All Rights Reserved.


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THE HEWLETT PACKARD\CATIA

ACCOUNT TEAM

Robert Abehassera Global Partner Manager

Computer Systems Organization

Robert joined Hewlett-Packard in 1979 as a system engineer. After

seven years in the Customer Software Support organization, he held

several management positions in the marketing of the Computer Systems

organization. He was responsible for the territory covering all of northern

France for commercial computer systems. After two years, he was given

the international responsibility for building strategic alliances and

relationships for HP's European Computer Systems Organization. One of

his most recent accomplishments was to establish the agreements withDassault Systemes and subsequently IBM-ETS on a global basis.

Two years ago he was promoted to the position of Hewlett-Packard Global

CATIA/CADAM Manager.

Robert is always in contact with each member of the HP CATIA/CADAM

network. He can be reached anytime at 011-49-7031-14-1001 box 7511.

Guy Bertrand Senior Consultant - Systems Architecture

Guy holds a degree in Management from the College Militaire Royale de

St-Jean and a degree in Computer Sciences from the Institut d'Informatique

du Quebec. Guy has held a variety of responsibilities in his fourteen

years of experience in the computer industry.

Guy is presently a member of HP's Strategic Accounts team. He isinvolved in projects that ensure transparent integration of CATIA on

Hewlett-Packard workstations in existing heterogeneous environments.

This includes network licensing, Native Language Support and

code pages, IUA/GII code migrations and system administration

issues. Guy is a member of COE's Software Quality Assurance (SQA)committee and he is actively involved in defining quality standards

in a multi-platform environment. For the past year Guy has worked

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at Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) to bring up CATIA on their production

Hewlett-Packard workstations. Guy is working closely with PWC,

Dassault Systemes and IBM Engineering Technology Solutions (ETS)

to resolve issues being identified in the initial Customer Validation

Process (CVP) for the current CATIA releases. Guy helped PWC create

a seamless heterogeneous multi-platform CATIA environment.

Guy is located in Montreal and can be reached at (514)428-2014.

Phil Brayman Mechanical Design Product Manager

Phil has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering

from the University of Michigan. Phil Has been involved in the

CAD/CAMarena for many years. He held the position of applications

engineer at McDonald Douglas for several CAD/CAM systems.

Subsequently, Phil went to work for Boeing Airplane Company as

a Structural Analyst.

Phil's present responsibilities at Hewlett-Packard include supporting

the workstation group in the resolution of CATIA issues and concerns.

Phil is located in Fort Collins, Colorado and can be reached at

(303)229-4885.

Dennis Kelly U.S. Strategic Account Manager CATIA/CADAMSolutions.

Dennis, an Industrial Engineering graduate of the University of

Lowell has over 12 years experience in the CAD/CAM arena.

Dennis has Hewlett-Packard responsibility for CATIA/CADAM

customer satisfaction solutions.

Dennisis located in Burlington, Massachusetts and can be reached at

(617) 221-5092.

Alfred P. Touissant Jr.

Senior Consultant - Technical Consulting Laboratory

Alfred did his undergraduate work in electrical engineering with a

concentration in computer sciences and economics at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology.

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Alfred has been with the Hewlett-Packard Company for seven years as

a technical consultant to a number of HP's independent software vendors.

Prior to HP, Alfred was a development software engineer for

Computervision Corporation and worked on the user interface of what

is currently known as Parametric CADDS5.

During the last two years, Alfred has played the technical lead role for

the distributed CATIA port to the HP workstation line. In that capacity,

he worked with Dassault Systemes development engineers in Suresnes and

various development and support organizations at HP to insure full

functionality, well tuned and robust port of CATIA to the HP platform.

Additionally, Alfred worked closely with a number of the pilot sites world

wide in the implementation of CATIA/HP in their environments. Alfred

has delivered technical presentations on the subject of CATIA on HP to

I BM/ETS, CATIA distributors and CATIA customers in the United

States and Asia.

Alfred is located at Hewlett-Packard Co, 300 Apollo Dr,

Chelmsford, MA 01824.

Rod Wilson Solutions Marketing Manager

Mechanical Design Automation

Workstation Systems Division

Rod received a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech and a

Master of Science from Colorado State University. Since joining

Hewlett-Packard in 1985, Rod has held a variety of positions inworkstation business development and product marketing. Most

recently, he has been responsible for HP's strategic OEM program.

Prior to that responsibility, Rod worked for 2 years in Boeblingen,

Germany as the European Product Marketing Manager for workstations.

Rod's present responsibilities are focused on growing Hewlett-Packard's

leadership position in the Mechanical Design Automation market. Rod's

team is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the success of all of the

major mechanical software packages on Hewlett-Packard's family of

computer systems. With the addition of CATIA to its portfolio, HP

is the only company to offer all of the major mechanical softwarepackages on its computer systems. Rod and his team are focused on

ensuring the premier engineering environment for CATIA users.

Rod is located in Fort Collins, Colorado and can be reached at

(303)229-4360.

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1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 REVISION 2.X SUMMARY 1

3 COMPUTER-GRAPHICS AIDED THREE-DIMENSIONAL 2

INTERACTIVE APPLICATION

3.1 Background............................................... 2

3.2 Distributed Catia ........................................... 2

3.3 Host Catia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3.4 Catia - Historical Sketch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.5 Catia Successes. . . . . . . . . . . . ................................ 3

3.6 The Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..........................3

4 TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTRIBUTED 4

CATIA

4.1 Catia User Interfaces . .......................................

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4.2 Distributed Catia Architecture ................................ 4

5 HP HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 5

5.1 Catia-Supported H-P Workstations . . . . ......................... 5

5.1.1 Low End Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................... 6

5.1.2 Mid Range Systems . . . .................................. 6

5.1.3 High End Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................... 6

5.1.4 A Word On Legacy Hardware . ............................ 6

5.2 Impact Of Configuration Options. . . .

..........................

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5.3 C P U Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................ 7

5.4 Memory Considerations . . . . . . . . . . ...........................

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5.5 Disk Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................... 7

5.5.1 Upgrade To Fast-Wide S C S I - I I. . ........................ 8

5.5.2 Distribute The Work Load Across Multiple Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.5.3 Split Swap Space Across Two Disks ........................ 8

5.5.4 Enable Asynchronous I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................ 8

5.6

Graphics Options ...........................................9

6 HP SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION 9

6.1 Operating Systems .......................................... 9

6.2Compilers ................................................. 9

7 HP GRAPHICS CONFIGURATION 10

7.1 Graphics Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10


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7.1.1 2-DGraphics Devices ...................................

7.1.2 3-DGraphics Devices ...................................

7.1.3 High End Graphics .....................................

7.1.4 Legacy Graphics Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . .....................

7.1.5 Workstation / Graphics Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . ................

7.2 Graphics Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................

7.2.1 Graphics A P I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.2.2Powershade ..........................................

8 HP-UX PATCH / PTF REQUIREMENTS

8.1 Patches Needed For A H P - U X 9.05 System . . . . . . . . . . . . .......

8.1.1 Graphics Patches . . . . . . ................................

8.1.2 Kernel Patch ..........................................

8.2 Patches Needed For A H P - U X 9.07 System .

..................8.3 Compiler Patches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..........................

8.4 Miscellaneous Patches ......................................

8.5 How To Obtain H-P Patches . . . . .............................

8.6 How To Install Patches . . . . . . . ..............................

8.7 Special Instructions For Graphics Patch Installation .............

8.8 Catia Solutions Version 4.1.4 P T F/Patches For H-P .............

9 PERIPHERAL SUPPORT

9.1 Input Device Support. . . . . . . . .

.............................

9.2 Output Device Support . . . . . . . . . . . ..........................

10 HP KERNEL CONFIGURATION

10.1 Affected Parameters . .....................................

10.2 Configuring Kernel Parameters With Sam.....................

11 SWAP SPACE CONSIDERATION

11.1 Distributed Catia Swap Requirement . . . . . . . . . . ..............

11.2 Configuring Swap Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......

11.3 Determining Swap Configuration ............................11.4 Determining Amount Of Swap Needed ........................

11.5 Configuring Device Swap On A Single Disk Drive System . . . . . . . .

11.6 Configuring Device Swap Across Multiple Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . .

11.7 Configuring File System Swap . . . . ..........................

12 SHARED LIBRARY CONSIDERATION

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12.1 Protection Id Trashing With Shared Libraries . . . . ............. 23

12.2 The S T E P L I B Environment Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

12.3 The S H L I B _P A T H Environment Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

12.4 Affected Kernel Parameters . . . . . . .......................... 24

13 LICENSE MANAGEMENT OF DISTRIBUTED CATIA ON 25

HP

13.1 Netls & Ifor/Ls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .................. 25

13.2 License Management Scenarios . . ........................... 25

13.3 Heterogeneous License Management: H P-U X / A I X . . . . . . . . . . 25

14 CATIA PROGRAMIVIING DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT 26

- GII/IUA

14.1 Introduction ............................................. 26

14.2 H-P Software Tool Requirements ............................ 26

14.3Example ................................................ 26

14.4 Debugging G I I And I U A Applications With Xdb .............. 27

14.5 Software Development Using Softbench . ..................... 28

14.5.1 Debugging With Softbench . . . . . ........................ 28

14.5.2 Using Softbench Performance Analyzer On The Shared .... 29

Modules ............................................

15 CATIA CODE PAGE AND NATIONAL LANGUAGE 30

SUPPORT

16 CATIA APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE PARTNERSHIP 31

16.1 C A A Partner List . . . . . . . . . . .............................. 31

16.2 Application Prerequisites On H-P ............................ 32

17 USE OF REMOTE X DISPLAY 32

17.1 Environment Variable Settings .............................. 32

17.2 Minimum Color Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................ 32

18 CATIA ADMINISTRATION 33

18.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... 33

18.1.1 Hardware Prerequisite . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................

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18.1.2 Software Prerequisite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

18.2 H P And Catia Installation Check List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

18.3 Packaging Catia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

18.3.1 Packaging Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

19 UNDERSTANDING MEMORY AND SWAP 36


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19.1 Memory Management . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.2 Physical Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.3 Secondary Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.4Swap.................................................

19.5 Virtual Address Space . ..................................

19.5.1 Configurable Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19.5.2 Series 700 Address Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20 PHYSICAL MEMORY VERSUS PERFORMANCE

20.1 Where Is The Memory Going ..............................

20.2 Determining Appropriate Physical Memory Size ..............

21 HP-UX CONFIGURATION

21.1 Kernel Configuration Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............

21.2 Maxdsiz And Its Affect On Memory. . .

......................

21.3 Parameters Which Affect I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............

21.4 Fast Link Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...........

22 NETWORKING CONSIDERATIONS

22.1 Introduction ............................................

22.2 Rules To Live By . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........

22.3 The Sticky Bit .........................................

22.4 Network Management Tool ..............................

23 CATIA/HP CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST

23.1 H-P Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...............

23.2 Operating System . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......

23.3 Graphics Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..............

23.4 Graphics Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23.5 Compilers For Gii/Iua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23.6 H-P Patches/Ptfs .........................................

23.7 Swap Space .............................................

23.8 Memory Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

.. . . . . . . . . . . .

23.9 Kernel Requirements .....................................

24 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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1 INTRODUCTION

This white paper discusses the characteristics of the Distributed CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4

mechanical CAD application on Hewlett-Packard workstations and how to configure the workstation for

optimal application performance. The intended audience include CATIA users newly exposed to the HP

workstation environment, HP users who need an exposure to the Distributed CATIA implementation onHP, IT professionals needing a focused introduction to the HP environment for Distributed CATIA, and

HP and CATIA support engineers who need to understand the requirements of Distributed CATIA on HP

and how best to configure the HP workstation for optimal application performance. A detailed table of

content is provided to facilitate quick access to needed information. To

get a jump start in running Distributed CATIA on HP, go directly to the "CATIA/HP Configuration

Checklist" chapter at the end of this document

2REVISION 2.X SUMMARY

The main driving force for Revision 2.X of this white paper is to provide information on the support and

requirement for running CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 on the new HP-UX 9.07 operating system, and the

expanded workstation and graphics subsystem products introduced by Hewlett-Packard in June 1995.

Additionally, the hardware and graphics configuration chapters were reorganized to be more meaningful

to the CATIA MCAD user. The HP-UX patch chapter was renamed to include the more familiar Program

Temporary Fix term, and reorganized to delineate CATIA-required patches/PTFs for HP-UX 9.05 and

those required for HP-UX 9.07 - NONE. A code page chapter was added to inform users of procedures to

move CATIA models from the IBM 850 format to the ISO-8859-1 format required for CATIA/HP, and the

tools provided by CATIA in this area. Finally at the request and with the assistance of key customers, the

CATIA/HP configuration checklist chapter was reorganized and expanded to provide a quick overview of

setting up the HP environment for Distributed CATIA.

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COMPUTER-GRAPHICS AIDED THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTERACTIVE

APPLICATION

3.1 Background

Computer-graphics Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application was born out a team ofengineers and mathematicians from Dassault Aviation in France in the mid-70's. It has since grown

be the MDA tool of choice in the aerospace and automotive industries. In the early 80's, Dassault

Systemes was incorporated with R&D responsibility for CATIA, with IBM handling the sales and

support responsibilities. In addition to its traditional IBM platforms of mainframe (MVS or VM) arc

workstations (RS6000/AIX) CATIA is now delivered on the HP workstation platforms.

3.2 Distributed Catia

This is the UNIX workstation version of CATIA. It has been available on the IBM RS/6000 for severs

years under AIX. Distributed CATIA is the version that has been ported to the HP workstation famil

It provides the same core functionality as mainframe CATIA, yet is distinct in its exploitation of

workstation features such as greater graphics functionality, MOTIF user interface, and some new

application modules delivered exclusively on the workstations. Clearly, Distributed CATIA is thestrategic direction of DS, IBM, and CATIA customers.

3.3 Host Catia

Host CATIA refers to the CATIA application running on an IBM mainframe, in one of two operating

system flavors: IBM/MVS and IBM/VM. The overwhelming majority of sites run MVS. A very few

Peugeot-Citroen among them, run the VM environment. There are four key points to be made here:

1 CATIA historically is a mainframe-based application. Most users are still on the mainframe.

Due to superior price/performance, client/server, and flexibility advantages of workstations

over host-based systems, there is a concerted effort to migrate the CATIA installed base to

Distributed CATIA.

2 Many of the design engineers migrating from host CATIA are new to the UNIX and HP

workstation environment.

3 Supporting these customers will by and large take more effort than say supporting a

UNIX-based customer migrating from another WS vendor to HP. Up front and on-going

technical support has a major effect on how Distributed CATIA on HP is perceived.

4 These users are hungry for some of the sophisticated application development tools

(Softbench) and client/server tools (Openview) available in the UNIX world. We have seen

this at a number of the pilot sites testing Distributed CATIA on HP.

3.4 Catia - Historical Sketch

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* Mid 70's - Outside of Paris, a small group of Dassault Aviation mathematicians and engineers decided

to put their powerful mechanical design algorithms into programs running on their mainframe,

* Early 80's - In light of the internal success of this software program, Mr. Marcel Dassault agreed to

spin off the mechanical design software group at Dassault Aviation into a subsidiary. Dassault

Systemes was born. CATIA would be delivered to IBM/MVS and IBM/VM mainframe customers.

* Early 90's - CATIA is delivered on its first UNIX platform, the RS/6000 workstation as Distributed

CATIA to provide new graphics functionality, and to broaden the use of CATIA among existing

host-based accounts and smaller customers. Dassault Systemes acquires CADAM from IBM and

establishes Dassault Systemes of America as the R&D wing for the CADAM and ProCADAM products.

* Early 1993 - CATIA Solutions Version 4 was released with significant new capabilities with a

statement of direction for Distributed CATIA on multiple platform.

* 7 March 1995 - CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 is announced at Daratech with support for Hewlett

Packard graphics engineering workstations as the first non-IBM platform, providing existing and new

CATIA users an additional platform choice and the full array of HP workstation products.

3.5 Catia Successes

CATIA serves a number of key industries including aerospace; automotive, consumer electronics, ship

building, heavy industries, and is installed at a number of the major accounts. With the successful

launch of its new LH-series car line, Chrysler is fast becoming the model, for other CATIA users across

industries and even to its competitors in the automotive industry, of a company focused on optimizing

its processes with CATIA as the master part description for all product design, development, and

pre-assembly. Boeing, in what is being described as the biggest CAD project ever, set a new

precedence in the aerospace industry by using 100% digital mock-up to design and pre-assemble the

new 777 jetliner [See COMPUTER-AIDED ENGINEERING - August 1994]. Likewise Dassault Aviation

is developing total electronic mock-up of its next generation Rafale jet fighter. Bypassing expensive

and time consuming physical mock up has been a goal for a number of large manufacturers

world-wide. Not many mechanical CAD applications can be configured to provide the level of

enterprise-wide, mature infrastructure necessary to support this goal. The fact that CATIA continues

to play a leading role in these successes testifies to its robustness as a mechanical design tool, and to

the depth and breadth of its capabilities.

3.6 The Port

Itwas inevitable that the leading enterprise-wide mechanical design tool supplier would join rank

with the leading hardware vendor in the mechanical design automation market. What is remarkable,

but not surprising is the fidelity and robustness of the Distributed CATIA product on HP. The

Distributed CATIA port to Hewlett-Packard workstations has seen an unprecedented level of

cooperation between the HP and DS technical teams. A number of existing and new CATIA customer

sites played a vital role in the qualification and certification of Distributed CATIA Solutions Version

4.1.4 on HP during a seven-month pre-release phase. Key members of HP's Professional Services

Organization played an equally valuable role in ensuring these early test customers got the best

technical support on the newest Distributed CATIA platform.

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4 TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS QF DISTRIBUTED CATIA

4.1 Catia User Interfaces

CATIA is available as:

*5080 CATIA which runs on the mainframe and is displayed on a 5080 terminal or on aworkstation running a terminal emulator package (including Spectragraphics'

5080 emulator for the HP S700)

* graPHIGS CATIA which runs and is displayed on the RS/6000, and

* Motif CATIA which runs and is displayed on both the RS/6000 and the HP.S700

HP-PHIGS is used as the underlying graphics API for Distributed CATIA on HP. Dassault emphasizes

the concept of "Single System Image" to describe the 100% functional equivalence of the various CATIA

interfaces. Once launched, a user sees the same CATIA interface and behavior pattern across the

different platforms and architectures.

4.2 Distributed Catia Architecture

Whereas many applications vendors are just beginning to release shared library versions of theirapplications after years of building one large executable with a host of binary and script files,

Dassault Systemes has architected Distributed CATIA into some 3,000 shared libraries also known as

modules. These reside in directory $CATIA/code/steplib where $CATIA is the installation directory.

There are clear advantages to such a shared library architecture, but there are also special challenges

which the workstation system faces as a result of this architecture. Refer to the Shared library

Consideration section of this document for specific steps which must be taken to ensure optimum HP

performance.

The ton level directories of Distributed CATIA and their contents include:

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5 HP HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

The HP workstation family is powereded by HP's Precision Architecture RISC or PA-RISC chips. HP

offers a broad range of products with varying CPU performance, memory, disk, and graphics capabilities.

The reason so many workstation products are available is to provide the customer the flexibility to

choose the most cost effective hardware solution to run the mechanical CAD application. Figure 1 belowpositions HP's current workstation product line according to the intended usage.

Figure 1

5.1 Catia-Supported H-P Workstations

CATIA users on HP can select a variety of workstation models. What follows is a quick description

of these models and their capabilities. A matrix of these workstations and their supported graphics

configurations is shown in Figure 3, found later in this document.

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5.1.1 Low End Systems

This category includes the Model 712 in its 60, and 80 Mhz configurations. The Mhz number

suggests progressively higher compute performance. The Envizex X-terminal is also in this

category but users are cautioned that with X-terminals running off of another workstation, compute

and graphics performance of Distributed CATIA could be significantly lower than on that

workstation. The 712 has only one graphics option - the 8-plane integrated color.

5.1.2 Mid Range Systems

The new 712/100 by virtue of its speed, the model 715 with the 64 and 80 Mhz configurations, by

virtue of their graphics expandability, and the 715/100 Mhz fill the mid-range space.

5.1.3 High End Systems

The new S715/100XC with a large cache, the 735/125, the J200 (100Mhz) and J210 (120Mhz) make

up the high end of the HP workstation line.

5.1.4 A Word On Legacy Hardware

Distributed CATIA Solutions Version 4.14 supports the set of workstation products outlined in

Figure 1 above. There is often questions from HP users about support for older models of the S700

line. It is worth noting that while some effort is expanded by Dassault (from the application

perspective) and H-P (from the operating system level) to provide support for legacy H-P

workstations, these legacy models are not actively used in developing, running, and testing of

CATIA. Moreover users with the 705, 710, 720, 730, 715/33 715/50, and 715/75 models running CRX

and CRX24 graphics are likely to be disappointed that these older configurations do not provide the

breadth of performance capabilities available in current H-P offerings. The legacy graphics devices

PVRX and TVRX are not supported by Distributed CATIA.

5.2 Impact Of Configuration Options

A heavily configured high-end workstation may be underutilized if it used to solve relatively small,simple problems. On the other hand, an inexpensive low-end system may have unacceptable response

time if it is used to do hidden line removal on large models. Selecting the most cost effective

Distributed CATIA seat requires careful matching of the customer's usage patterns and the hardware

options which ideally suits these patterns.

At least four components directly affect the performance of your Distributed CATIA seat. These are:

CPU Speed

Memory Size

Disk Size

Graphics options

While all these hardware areas are important, it is equally important to configure a balanced system. It

is counterproductive to buy the fastest CPU and configure it with insufficient memory. You might get

better performance and throughput with a slower, less expensive, CPU with the difference in price

invested in more memory. The large number of system variables, combined with their interaction,

complicates the task of selecting the most cost/performance effective configuration for all usage

patterns. The best way to select appropriate hardware configurations is to perform benchmark tests

that duplicate the intended use of the system as closely as possible. With relevant benchmark data in

hand, the customer has the information needed to make intelligent tradeoff decisions on the

cost/performance benefits of the available hardware options. A discussion of the four components

follows.

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5.3 C P U Speed

Almost all operations performed on engineering data require a large number of floating point and

integer calculations. CPU speed is the most important performance factor for executing large number

of calculations. If an operation takes five seconds, is it worth spending an extra $5,000 for a faster

CPU so the operation can be done in three seconds? Would the added expense be more justifiable if

the faster CPU reduces a five-hour operation to three hours? What if the operation is done several

times a day rather than once a month? When evaluating CPU performance, a priority list should be

generated to identify the tasks pertinent to the customer's design process and their relative

importance, frequency, and impact on overall productivity.

Tasks that are most affected by CPU performance are those that involve more computation than disk

access or graphics display. Some examples are:

Mass Properties

Elfini Solver

Boolean Operations

Finite Element Analysis

While the graphics performance on HP systems will scale with the CPU performance, the mostimportant criteria for CPU performance is on non-graphic, computational operations. This should be

kept in mind when evaluating systems for use with Distributed CATIA. In order to achieve satisfactory

performance, it is essential to match the CPU to the task to be performed.

5.4 Memory Considerations

The minimum memory requirement for Distributed CATIA is 32MB. The recommended minimum is

64MB or more. The amount of memory needed is directly related to the size of the model data you

need to work with. HP-UX is a virtual memory operating system. This means that the maximum

amount of memory available to Distributed CATIA is determined by the amount of swap space

configured and not by the amount of physical memory. Inadequate memory, or RAM, will not prevent

Distributed CATIA from running but will have a serious negative impact on performance. Memory

management is a complex topic. Memory, its relationship to swap space, and its effect on performanceare discussed in more detail in the section Understanding Memory and Swap later in this document.

5.5 Disk Considerations

All installed products of Distributed CATIA consume approximately 250 MB. A minimum of 40MB of

user data space is recommended, as is a minimum swap of 264MB, totaling a minimum disk

requirement for 554MB. The installation of the CATIA on-line documentation on disk may consume an

additional 340MB with the graphic format, or 100MB with the alphanumeric format.

Adding the operating system size to that total, a system equipped with just a 1 GB disk is barely

adequate to run Distributed CATIA.

Distributed CATIA model files and assemblies are stored on disk and can be quite large. For this

reason, disk 1/O is the bottleneck in several Distributed CATIA operations, particularly during

read/open part and save/close part operations. When a part is loaded, the entire model file, or all the

model files belonging to an assembly, must be read from the disk and loaded into memory. Increasing

CPU performance has minimal impact on the time necessary for these operations. Since swap space is

actually system memory that is stored on disk, disk I/O performance can affect swap performance as

well. Disk 1/O performance is most significant when working with very large models or assemblies.

HP's philosophy is to design balanced systems in which no component becomes a performance

bottleneck. HP has made significant enhancements to 1/O performance needed to keep pace with the

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breakneck speed of our CPUs. I/O performance depends on several parts of the system working

together efficiently. The I/O subsystems have been redesigned so as to offer the industry's fastest and

most functional I/O subsystems as standard equipment, including fast-wide SCSI-II. There are several

things that can be done to improve disk I/O performance:

5.5.1 Upgrade To Fast-Wide S C S I - II.

The fast-wide SCSI-II bus has a burst transfer rate of 20 MB / second, compared to 5 MB / second

for single-ended SCSI-II bus. The single disk data transfer rate for a 1.0 GB single-ended SCSI-II

disk is 2.7MB/sec, versus 3.5MB/sec for fast-wide SCSI-II. Fast-wide SCSI-II is currently only

supported on the model 735/755 workstations.

5.5.2 Distribute The Work Load Across Multiple Disks.

Disk I/O performance can be improved by distributing data across multiple disks. In a single disk

configuration, a single drive must handle operating system access, Distributed CATIA software

access, memory swap, and part file access simultaneously. If these different tasks can be

distributed across multiple disks then the job can be shared providing subsequent performance

improvements. For example, a workstation might be configured with three disk drives. The HP-UX

operating system and Distributed CATIA software would reside on one disk, swap space on thesecond, and the model files on the third.

Another way to distribute the disk workload is with an HP-UX feature called Software Disk

Striping. SDS groups disks into arrays and allows you to distribute a single file system across

multiple disks while allowing the data on the disks to be managed as if occupying a single disk.

Distribution of the file system across multiple disk devices allows them to work in tandem and

provides much better performance for I/O intensive operations than a single disk.

5.5.3 Split Swap Space Across Two Disks

Device swap space can be interleaved, or distributed across two disks. This will improve

performance when memory is swapped to or from disk. This is discussed in more detail in the

section on Swap Space Configuration later in this document.

5.5.4 Enable Asynchronous I/O

By default HP-UX uses synchronous disk I/O. This means that any file-system activity must

complete to the disk before the program is allowed to continue; the process does not regain control

until completion of the physical I/O (regardless of whether the I/O is user data or operating-system

data). When HP-UX writes to disk synchronously, I/O is scheduled at some later time and the

process regains control immediately, without waiting.

Synchronous writes ensure file system integrity in case of system crash, but this kind of disk

writing also impedes system performance. Run-time performance increases significantly (up to

roughly ten percent) on I/O intensive applications when all disk writes occur synchronously; little

effect is seen for compute-bound processes. However, if a system using asynchronous disk writescrashes, recovery might require system-administrator intervention usingfsckand might also cause

data loss. You must determine whether the improved performance is worth the slight risk of data

loss in the event of a system crash.

Asynchronous I/O is enabled by setting the value of the kernel parameterfs_async to l and

disabled by setting it to 0, the default. For instructions on how to configure kernel parameters, see

the section Kernel Configuration Parameters l ater in this document.

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5.6 Graphics Options

CATIA has built a solid reputation as a 3D graphics intensive mechanical CAD application. CATIA

users increasingly like working with solid models and expect fast graphics performance from their

system. Refer to the HP GRAPHICS CONFIGURATION section for a full discussion of the graphics

offering and configuration for Distributed CATIA on HP.

6 HP SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

6.1 Operating Systems

Distributed CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 now runs on two HP operating system levels - HP-UX 9.05

and HP-UX 9.07.

1 HP-UX 9.05 - This version of the operating system was launched in May 1994. Distributed

CATIA on HP was built and has been certified on HP-UX 9.05.

2 HP-UX 9.07 - This version of the operating system was introduced in July 1995 to support a

number of new HP hardware and graphics offerings. These new models are the 712/100,715/100XC, the J-class, and the Visualize-8, -24, and -48 graphics devices. HP-UX 9.07 also

runs the older systems. CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 has been successfully certified on

HP-UX 9.07 and the new hardware options.

6.2 Compilers

Distributed CATIA is built using the HP FORTRAN, C, C++ compilers. The FORTRAN compilerversion is:

% what /lib/ccom

/lib/ccom:

HP92453-01 A.09.69 HP C Compiler

HP-UX SLLIC/OPTIMIZER UX.09.18.04 (BCK_UX _9.0_BL04): Fri 08/19/94

High Level Optimizer - UX.09.16.01 (+02) built Mon Aug 22 15:56:20 PDT 1994

Ucode Code Generator - UX.09.18.04 (BCK_UX_9.0 BL04) - Fri 94/08/19

The C++ compiler version is:

what /usr/bin/CC

/usr/bin/CC:

HP C++ B2402 A.03.55

NOTE: In order to execute CATIA 4.1.4 on HP, these compilers are not needed. If however the user

is developing G11 or IUA applications, at least the FORTRAN compiler would be needed to compile

and link the GII/IUA modules. See section on GII/IUA.

9

% what /usr/lib/f77pass1

/usr/lib/f77pass1:

HP-UX SLLIC/OPTIMIZER UX.09.18.02 (BL02): Wed 06/21/94

HP-UX FORTRAN/9000 940620.1933 (patch PHSS_4360) B2408A/B2409B 09.16

High Level Optimizer - HP-UX 9.0 DART 16 (+02) built Thu May 1211:29:28 PDT 1994Ucode Code Generator - UX.09.18.03 (BCK_UX_9.0_BL02) - Tue 94/06/21


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7 _ HP GRAPHICS CONFIGURATION

7.1 Graphics Hardware

Graphics display performance is very important for an interactive graphics application such as

Distributed CATIA. HP offers a wide range of graphics options, from the CRX line, to the HCRX line,

and the new Visualize-8, -24, and the top of the line Visualize-48. Figure 2 below shows the graphics

devices supported by Distributed CATIA and their intended use. For a matrix of HP workstations and

their supported graphics options for CATIA, see Figure 3 at the end of this chapter.

7.1.1 2-D Graphics Devices

Figure 2

2-D graphics cards are usually equipped with 8 image planes and generally used for wireframe/

drawing/drafting activities in Distributed CATIA. In this category, the following cards are available:

I Integrated Color Graphics - This is an 8-bit. (256 color) display that is built into the

workstation's motherboard. It. provides excellent vector performance, faster than many

vendors optional accelerated graphics, and also accelerates the Graphical User Interface. It

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features HP Color Recovery, a patented display technology that simulates 24 bit color. This

display is adequate for low-end 2D or 3D use with small drawing and/or model files, and is

available on the 712 and 715 models.

2 HCRX-8 and HCRX-24 - The HCRX graphics accelerator is an EISA card internal to the CPU

cabinet. It provides additional X-Windows graphics acceleration (approximately 50%) and

vector display acceleration (approximately 2X) over integrated color graphics. It is good forperformance-oriented 2D use. It is also good for 3D use when working primarily in wireframe

mode and there is no requirement for dynamic rotation of shaded images for visualization.

The HCRX-24 provides 24 bit color (16.7 million colors). Utilizing Color Recovery, however,

the HCRX-8 provides about 8 million colors and is probably adequate for many MCAD

graphics uses. These cards are available on the 715 and J-Class workstations.

3 Color Graphics Card - Another low cost 2D 8-plane card for the J-Class workstations.

The software graphics accelerator Powershade is recommended to enhance the image quality,

shading and lighting calculations on these boards. See Powershade in the Graphics Software

Configuration section.

7.1.2 3-D Graphics Devices

Designers working with shaded models and solids will find the faster graphics and better image

quality of the following devices of interest:

1 HCRX-8Z / HCRX-24Z - These products add hardware Z-buffer, in the form of a daughter

card, to the HCRX-8/24 providing acceleration of 3D shaded images. While the 3D vector

performance is the same as the HCRX-8/24, the Z daughter card is essential for dynamic

rotation of 3D shaded images for design visualization purposes. The HCRX-8Z has the same

color limitations as the HCRX-8 above, and its performance is the same as the HCRX-24Z.

However the HCRX-24Z delivers superior visual quality. The full Hyper CRX line is available

on the 715 and J-Class workstations.

2 Visualize-8 /Visualize-24 -These cards are similar to the HCRX-8Z and HCRX-24Z,

respectively, but significantly faster graphics -1.5X to 3.5X the HCRX line. They are available

on the 715 and J-Class workstations.

7.1.3 High End Graphics

This category is suitable for graphics intensive activities requiring a high degree of photo-realism

and smooth dynamics of large number of complex shaded objects.

1 CRX-48Z - The CRX48Z comes in a separate box. It has two 24 bit hardware Z-buffers with

the capability to do double-buffered rotations of 24 bit shaded images. This means that each

new view of the image is created in the off-screen buffer and then flashed onto the screen all

at once. This provides smoother rotations on larger models. The 48Z is supported on the 715

100 & 100XC, the 735, and J-Class workstations.

2 Visualize-48 - This is the top of the line graphics device which runs 2 to 3.5X the speed of the

CRX-48Z. It is available on the J-Class.

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7.1.4 Legacy Graphics Cards

See note on legacy hardware in the hardware configuration section of this document.

7.1.5 Workstation / Graphics Matrix

Figure 3 below shows the range of workstations and graphics devices supported by Distributed

CATIA on HP.

Figure 3

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7.2 Graphics Software

7.2.1 Graphics A P I

The Hewlett-Packard graphics application programming interface uses in Distributes CATIA is

HP-PHIGS. The customer must obtain HP-PHIGS Version 3.0, product number B2364E, to run

Distributes CATIA. The operating system running on the workstation, HP-UX 9.05 or 9.07, must be

specifies when ordering this product.

7.2.2 Powershade

The HCRX-8Z/-24Z, CRX48Z, and Visualize-8/24/48 all contain a hardware Z buffer that is uses to

i mprove performance of shaded images. Powershade comes bundled with systems configures with

Z-buffer graphics hardware. To generate a shaded view, the surface of the model object must be

tessellated, or broken up into a mesh of small triangles. These triangles are sorted bases on their Z

value. Triangles that are closer to the viewing plane are sorted to the front, and triangles further

away are sorted to the back. This sorting can be implemented in software or hardware. Since a

complex object may have hundreds of thousands, or even millions of triangles, this operation can

be very time consuming when done in software. On a system with a graphics accelerator, the

triangles are loaded into the hardware Z-buffer, a form of physical memory, and sorted by a built-inhardware algorithm. This is extremely fast, almost instantaneous for most images.

Powershade simulates a hardware Z buffer in software. While not as fast as a hardware

i mplementation, it is nonetheless significantly faster than conventional software sorts. On a system

without hardware graphics boards, Powershade accelerates shading and lighting calculations.

Powershade is highly recommended for Distributes CATIA on all HP graphic boards.

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5 HP-UX PATCH / _ PTF REQUIREMENTS

"PTF" in CATIA parlance is synonymous to "patch" in HP parlance. As CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4

supports two HP-UX operating systems, the patches required are based on the operating system running

on your workstation. The rest of this chapter provides detail on the patch mechanism and the relevant OS

information.

8.1 Patches Needed For A H P - U X 9.05 System

8.1.1 Graphics Patches

The HP-UX graphics patches for Distributed CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 were released in the

February Periodic Patch. These are:

/hp-ux_patches/s700/9.X/PHSS 5100 - (Starbase Core Run-time) and

/hp-ux-patches/s700/9.X/PHSS_5104 - (HP-PHIGS Run-time)

As of mid -July 1995, patch PHSS_5100 has been superseded by patch PHSS_5450. This patch can

be used in place of PHSS_5100. Note that CATIA/HP customers need only the run-time version of

HP-PHIGS, thus only the run-time versions of these patches are needed to run Distributed CATIA.

This rule applies to customers who develop CATIA/GII/IUA customized applications as well. To

verify the that these patches are installed, execute the what command on two libraries. You shouldget the following results (or subsequent revisions):

/useres/mr_t 16=> what /usr/lib/libsb.sl/usr/lib/libphigs.sl

/usr/lib/libsb.sl:

GRAPHICS CORE R905_P5 BRANCH 950210libsb.sl $Revision: 510.1.200.1$

PHSS_5099/5100 February 95 Starbase/CORE Periodic Patch

GRAPHICS CORE R905_P5 BRANCH 950210libsga $Revision: 510.1.200.12 $


GRAPHICS CORE R905_P5 BRANCH 950210libsb2.a $Revision: 510.1.200.3 $


GRM Library HP-UX 8.0 A.01 Protocol PROTO_VER FILE VERSION

/usr/lib/libphigs.sl:

180.2 01/30/95 HP-PHIGS PATCH PHSS_4253/PHSS 4254

180.2 01/30/95 HP-PHIGS PATCH PHSS_4559/PHSS 4560

180.2 01/30/95 HP-PHIGS PATCH PHSS_4908/PHSS_4909

180.2 01/30/95 HP-PHIGS PATCH PHSS_5103/PHSS_5104180.2 01/30/95 HP-PHIGS 3.20 on HP-UX

For customers who purchase the HP-PHIGS development bundle, the development versions of the

above patches should be applied. They are:

/hp-ux-patches/s700/9.X/PHSS_5099 - (Starbase Core Development)

/hp-ux_patches/s700/9.X/PHSS_5103 - (HP-PHIGS Development)

Be sure to follow the " Special Instructions For Graphics Patch Installation" section below.

8.1.2 Kernel Patch

The following kernel patch is recommended to fix memory map and NFS performance problems:

/hp-ux-patches/s700/9.X/PHKL_5165 or its successor.

1 4
http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://950210libsb.sl/http://950210libsb.sl/http://950210libsb.sl/http://950210libsb.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/


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8.2 Patches Needed For A H P - U X 9.07 System

NO HP-UX patches are necessary to run Distributed CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 on 9.07! The above

patches for 9.05 were incorporated into the 9.07 core graphics software, the 9.07 kernel, and the 9.07

HP-PHIGS product. To verify the right set of graphics revision is on your system, execute the

following command and check your output against this:

% what /usr/lib/libsb.sl/usr/lib/libphigs.sl

/usr/lib/libsb.sl:GRAPHICS CORE R907 BRANCH 950526 libsb.sl $Revision: 530.1.100.3 $

GRAPHICS CORE R907 BRANCH 950526 libsb2.a $Revision: 530.1.100.1 $

GRM Library HP-UX 8.0 A.01 Protocol PROTO_VER FILE VERSION

GRAPHICS CORE R907 BRANCH 950526 libpi $Revision: 530.1.100.4 $

GRAPHICS CORE R907 BRANCH 950526 libsga $Revision: 530.1.100.2 $

/usr/lib/libphigs.sl:





180.5 05/12/95 HP-PHIGS 3.20 on HP-UX

/usr/lib/libsb.sl is part of the core graphics distributed with the HP-UX 9.07 operating system.

/usr/lib/libphigs.sl is part of the PHIGS 3.0 product for HP-UX 9.07.

8.3 Compiler Patches

The HP patches which contains the recommended version of the compilers are:

FORTRAN: PHSS-4360 and PHSS-4664 and

C: PHSS-4637

or their successors. Note these patches are needed only if you have the compilers for GII/IUA use.

8.4 Miscellaneous Patches

There are a number of patches whichcan be applied to a Distributed CATIA seat. These patches,

while not necessary to run Distributed CATIA, may provide fixes to problems found at a particular

site. Hewlett-Packard periodically releases patch bundles which provide fixes to a variety of

customer-reported problems. Contact your support personnel for more information.

8.5 How To Obtain H-P Patches

In North America, contact 1-800-637-7740 for more information. HP patches are available in the

World Wide Web at URL http://support.mayfield.hp.com. Otherwise contact your local support

representative.

8.6 How To Install Patches

Patches are delivered in a file known as a shell archive. When the archive is extracted, two files are

created, an ASCU text file containing a description of the patch and the defects it corrects, and a

binary file containing the patch itself in Update format. For example, to extract the files for patch

PHSS_4073:

Copy or extract the patch file to /tmp.

Go to /tmp:

$ cd /tmp

15
http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://support.mayfield.hp.com.otherwise/http://support.mayfield.hp.com.otherwise/http://support.mayfield.hp.com.otherwise/http://support.mayfield.hp.com.otherwise/http://support.mayfield.hp.com.otherwise/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libsb.sl/http://libsb.sl/


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Unpack the patch to extract the text and update files:

$ sh PHSS 4073

PHSS_4073.text and PHSS_4073.updt

As root, run the HP-UX update program:

$ su# /etc/update

On the first update screen select:

Change Source or Destination->

On the next screen select:

From Tape Device to Local System ...

Enter the source of the update:

Tape Device File: (source): /tmp/PHSS_4073.updt

Press:

F4, DONE

Select:

Select All Filesets on the Source Media ->

When prompted to load, enter:

The patch will be installed. Note that some patches require a system reboot. Carefully read the text

file before installing any patch, and backup your system. If you are unsure of the implications, call

your HP Support Center.

8.7 Special Instructions For Graphics Patch Installation

A patch may not be installed completely if a binary component of that patch is "in use" by the system.

Care should be taken when installing the graphics patches so as to minimize this type of clashing. You

will see the following error in an incomplete installation:

/lib/dld.sl: Unresolved symbol: _hpp_wideline control (code) from /usr/lib/libphigs.slThis is a common problem found with new Distributed CATIA installation on HP. Care should be

taken to avoid the problem. One effective way is to make sure neither X11 nor VUE are running during

the patch installation:

1 Log out

2 At the login prompt, select Options / No Windows

3 Login as root into the alphanumeric terminal.

4 Follow the patch installation above.

8.8 Catia Solutions Version 4.1.4 P T F/Patches For H-P

Customers should contact their CATIA service representative.

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http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/http://libphigs.sl/


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9 PERIPHERAL SUPPORT

9.1 Input Device Support

Distributed CATIA has been certified on both HP-HIL- and serial-connected hardware input devices.

Support for both HP-HIL and IBM PS/2 keyboards are available with CATIA on HP. The following two

input devices are required for Distributed CATIA:

1 Three-button mouse or graphics tablet (A4364A, ...)

2 Alphanumeric keyboard - Specific keyboard may be required for National Language Support

A customer can use the following optional devices when running Distributed CATIA on HP:

1 9-knob dial box (46085A or A4362A)

2 32-button box (46086A or A4363A)

3 Spaceball (A4360A)

9.2 Output Device Support

Distributed CATIA provides drivers for a number of plotter languages. These include:

1 7

IBM-GL

Calcomp C907H P - G L / 2

OCE Graphics GPR50

Versatec VCGL

Versatec VRF


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10 HP KERNEL CONFIGURATION

10.1 Affected Parameters

The values of the following operating system kernel parameters need to reflect the Distributed CATIA

requirements:

1 maxdsiz -The maximum data segment size value needs to be set to at least 256MB.

2 maxtsiz - The maximum stack size segment value needs to be set to at least 128MB.

3 nfile - The maximum number of open files value needs to be set to 3300

4 ninode - The maximum number of open inodes value needs to be set to 3250

10.2 Configuring Kernel Parameters With Sam

To configure kernel parameters with SAM, follow these steps.

1 Login to the system as root.

2 Start the SAM system administration tool by typing the command: sam

3 With the mouse, click on the Kernel Configuration line in the listbox and then click on the

Open button.

4 On the next screen, click on Configurable Parameters and then Open.

5 SAM will display a screen with a list of all configurable parameters and their current and

pending values. Scroll to the parameter you want to change, for example maxdsiz, and click

on it. Then click on theActions selection on the menu bar and selectModify Configurable

Parameters... on the sub-menu.

6 SAM will display a form showing the existing value and a calculated value. The existing value

is in hexadecimal format. If you are not proficient at converting hexadecimal numbers, simply

enter a new value and pressRETURN. The Calculated Value is displayed in decimal format.

Once you have the value you want, click on the OK button.

7 Look at the Pending Value column and make sure that the new value is displayed there.

Sometimes SAM doesn't accept the new value and you may have to repeat step 6. Repeat

steps 5 and 6 for each parameter you wish to change.

8 Click on theActions selection on the menu bar and select Create A New Kernel. A

confirmation window will be displayed warning you that a reboot is required. Click on YES toproceed.

9 SAM will build the new kernel and then display a form with two options:

Move Kernel Into Place and Reboot the System Now

Exit Without Moving the Kernel Into PlaceIf you select the first option and then click on OK, the new kernel will be moved into place

and the system will be automatically rebooted.

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11 SWAP SPACE CONSIDERATION

11.1 Distributed Catia Swap Requirement

HP-UX requires the reservation of enough swap space for each running process so that all processes

can be swapped out simultaneously in case of heavy memory usage. Since read-only text pages (code)

are never swapped out, only the data area needs to be taken into account when determining swaprequirement. With maxdsiz set to 256 MB, a minimum of 264 MB of additional swap space (256 +

8Mbytes for stack ) is recommended for CATIA. Working with larger models may require larger values

for swap and maxdsiz.

11.2 Configuring Swap Space

For best performance, device swap is more efficient then file system swap. The ideal configuration is

device swap interleaved on two disks. When device swap is interleaved, the system alternates between

the two disks as swap is used providing better performance than a single disk.

11.3 Determining Swap Configuration

To see how much swap space is configured on your system, and how much is in use, execute thecommand:

/etc/swapinfo -t

You must be root to execute this command. This is because swapinfo must open the kernel memory

file /dev/kmem to read the swap usage information so you must have appropriate privileges to this file.

Since this is a critical Operating System file, access is usually restricted to root only.

swapinfo will display information similar to the following:

This information from swapinfo -t shows this system is configured with a total of 76,559KB of device

swap and 20,480KB of file system swap. The device swap is configured with a priority of 0 and the file

system swap with a priority of 1. This means that device swap will be used until it is all consumed and

then file system swap will be used.

Many people make the mistake of using the swapinfo command without the "-t" option. This option

adds the total line at the bottom. If you look at this example, the percent used on the top line is only

13%, but on the bottom total line, it is 45%. To determine the amount of swap used, and the remaining

available, you must take into account the amount of swap onhold.

HP-UX plans ahead by reservingswap space each time a process (program) is started even though it is not used and may not even be

needed. This ensures there is adequate swap space to swap out the process in the event it becomes

necessary.

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11.6 Configuring Device Swap Across Multiple Disk Drives

The instructions below pertain to a system where swap is to be configured on two disks - the root disk

and a second local disk. The instructions would need to be slightly modified for more disks. Creating

an SDS (software disk striping) array is yet another way to add device swap across multiple disks. For

best device swap performance across two disks, there are two guidelines:

1 Both drives should have priority 0 - in this case, the system will alternate between the two

drives as swap is consumed. This is known as interleaved swap. This provides better swap

performance since the disk I/O is spread across two physical devices.

2 Both swap areas in an interleaved configuration should be of the same size.

Note that when device swap is to be added to a disk, a new file system is created on that disk. Thus if

the second disk was previously in use, make sure that its content is backed up. To create the second

device swap area, do as follow:

1 Create swap area on root disk by following instructions for one-drive configuration above.

2 Prepare the second disk by insuring it is unmounted and properly connected to the CPU.


4 Click on theDisks and File Systems-> item in the list box and then click on the Open button.

b Click on CD-ROM, Floppy, and Hard Disks and then Open to get a list of all drives physically

connected to your system.

6 Click on the unusedsecond disk.

7 SelectActions and thenAdd a Hard Disk Drive... while second disk is highlighted.

8 Select Set Disk Usage andOptions... on the new menu window.

9 Select File System and Swap and select 0 for Swap Priority.

10 Enter theMount Directory by specifying/disk2for example.

11 Select Create New File System and the appropriateDisk Space Allocation. Note that in order

to have the same swap amount on both disks, the swap amount selected at OS installation

above should match the amount that you select here.

12 Complete the procedure by selecting OK, Yes, OK

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11.7 Configuring File System Swap

File system swap can be added at any time. Even though it isn't recommended for performance

reasons, there are times when it may be necessary to add some file system swap in an emergency.

1 Login to the system as root.


3 Click on theDisks and File Systems-> item in the list box and then click on the Open button.

4 Click onSwap and thenOpen.

b SAM displays a form with the currently configured swap. Click on theActions selection on the

menu bar and select AddFile System Swap... on the sub-menu.

6 SAM will display a form with a list of local file systems. Click on the file system where you

want to add the swap (usually /).

7 Fill in theMinimumandMaximum swap boxes.Minimum Swap is the amount of swap that

will be allocated immediately. As swap is used, additional swap will be added until the

Maximum Swap value is reached. Set Swap Priority to 1. If you want the file system swap to

be mounted the next time the system is booted, select both Now and AtEvery System Boot.

Click on OK.

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12 SHARED LIBRARY CONSIDERATION

The run-time mechanism of CATIA is based on the dynamic loading of a large number of shared library

objects or modules. Nearly 3000 shared libraries make up the CATIA product. With this many shared

libraries, certain system resources become quickly exhausted. This section discusses some of the changes

and adjustments which must be done to address the shared library requirements of Distributed CATIA

12.1 Protection Id Trashing With Shared Libraries

PA-RISC defines a permission mechanism for each memory access. Each page is assigned a

"Protection Identifier" which will be tested against four hardware registers. If the Protection ID

matches one of these four control registers, the memory access is enabled. In the case of no match, a

hardware interrupt occurs and a kernel exception handler is executed. This routine then detects if the

protection ID of the page is allowed to the process. If it succeeds it will copy the protection ID into

one of the four control registers and resume the process. This can really trash the running process if it

has to frequently access memory addresses that are protected with more than four unique protection

IDs. There is a special case where the page is set "public" with a protection ID of 0. In that case,

memory accesses are always authorized.

The kernel implements a shared library as a memory mapped file for which a unique protection ID isassigned in case where the file has permissions like 755. To avoid this problem, it is highly

recommended to set the file permissions to 555. This tells the kernel to set the memory mapped file's

pages to a protection ID of 0.

Therefore it is highly recommended to set the CATIA shared libraries permissions to 555 ( STEPLIB )

as well as any new customer shared library built with GII or IUA.

12.2 The S T E P L I B Environment Variable

The STEPLIB environment variable is used by CATIA to search for the modules (shared libraries) that

are dynamically loaded. It is important to have this variable properly set-up so that CATIA look up the

local directories first before going to the NFS mounted directories. For example:

STEPLIB=/local/catusr/steplib:/nfs/server/catusr/steplibismuch better than

STEPLIB=/nfs/server/catusr/steplib:/local/catusr/steplib

12.3 The S H L I B P A T H Environment Variable

As you all know by now, CATIA is architected around the model of dynamic loadable modules. This is

implemented via shared libs on HP-UX. By default, the search path for the HP dynamic libraries such

as libc etc, has been set to /lib:/usr/lib. This is not the best setting for PA1.1 CPUs. Fortunately, DS

uses the +s option while building all the CATIA modules. This allows us to change the default path

for the HP-UX libs. Therefore, it is recommended to set the SHLIB PATH environment variable as

follows:

export SHLIB_PATH=/lib/pa1.1:/usr/lib/pa1.1:/lib:/usr/lib

The direct impact is that the pa1.1 version of libf and libcl will be used instead of the pa1.0. versions.

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12.4 Affected Kernel Parameters

Within approximately five minutes of launching Distributed CATIA, the HP system reports the

following warning messages on a kernel with the default set of parameter values:

"inode table is full"

To avoid this problem, two kernel parameters must be changed: nfile and ninode. The nfile

parameter sizes the System File Table. This table is a system-wide resource which contains one entry

for each distinct file opening. Whenever a new shared library is dynamically loaded for example, a new

entry is added to this table.

The ninode parameter sizes the table of recently used inodes. This table is also kept in memory. Its

purpose is to allow processes to access inodes without having to read from the disk each time. There

is one inode entry used for each file or shared library, regardless of the number of open operations

currently pending on the file. To complete the description, it is important to mention the vnode table

which has a one-to-one correspondence with the inode table. Thus whenever a shared library is

loaded, one entry is added to the inode table provided this is the first loading of that library, one entry

is added to the System File Table, one to the vnode table.

The default size of the System File, the Inode, and Vnode tables are rather small - 734, 606, and 606

respectively. To be able to handle the dynamic load of 3000 shared libraries within a CATIA session,the following values are recommended:

nfile => 3300

ninode => 3250

These numbers are arrived at as follow:

nfile: 300 (default number for System processes ) +3000 (CATIA shared libraries) = 3300

ninode: 250 (default number) +3000 (CATIA shared library) =3250

These values are computed based on the following assumptions

CATIA could load a maximum of 3000 shared libraries during a session,

a CATIA dynamically loaded shared library is never unloaded, and

the number of CATIA files, log, model, etc is negligible compared to the number of active shared

libraries.

Lastly, it is worth noting the RAM impact of the nfile and ninode parameter value changes. Each entry

in the System File Table takes 32 bytes. Each entry in the in-core inode table takes 340 bytes. Each

entry in the vnode table takes 72 bytes. Therefore the impact on the kernel size under the previous

assumptions, is: (3300-734)*32 + (3250-606)*72 + (3250-606)*340 = 1,171,440 bytes. Thus the

properly configured HP-UX kernel requires an additional megabyte of RAM to a Distributed CATIA

session.

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13 LICENSE MANAGEMENT OF DISTRIBUTED CATIA ON HP

13.1 Netls & Ifor/Ls

Hewlett-Packard and Gradient Technologies of Malboro, MA have a business relationship whereby

Gradient assumes maintenance, development, and marketing responsibilities for the HP NetLS

product. HP NetLS is marketed under the name iFOR/LS by Gradient and is available on multipleplatforms, including HP and IBM.

The HP NetLS run-time license manager, which is functionally equivalent to iFOR/LS, is bundled with

the HP-UX 9.05 operating system. At the next major HP-UX release, the iFOR/LS binary will be

bundled with that OS. Dassault uses Gradient's iFOR/LS developer kit to bundle iFOR/LS with

Distributed CATIA on HP and to generate iFOR/LS keys. This is 100% compatible with the NetLS

run-time on HP-UX 9.05. As part of the relationship agreement between HP and Gradient, HP

customers with license manager defects will continue to contact the appropriate HP Customer support

center. I t is worth noting however, that among the services which Gradient provides are training and

consulting to end-users with special license management concerns, such as making license

management servers more fault tolerant, putting in-house-developed applications under license

control, etc... For these purposes, Gradient should be contacted.

13.2 License Management Scenarios

Distributed CATIA support two licensing schemes:

1 Concurrent-access (floating) license - This type of license is not restricted to any particular

node or nodes, but is based on the number of licenses ordered for a product. Access is

managed by one or more NetLS/iFORLS server daemons on the network.

2 Node lock license - This type of license is computed specifically for a CPU or an HP license ID

module. The target ID must be furnished in order to obtain the appropriate license key. To

retrieve the target id for a CPU, execute the following command:

/usr/etc/netls/ls_targetid

It is recommended that node lock licenses be used for standard CATIA product configurations

expected for constant use. Floating licenses are recommended when additional products need to be

used infrequently. Consult the CATIA Solution Installation Guide for more detail.

13.3 Heterogeneous License Management: H P-U X / A I X

Distributed CATIA customers running on IBM/AIX workstations are likely to use one of two license

managers - iFOR/LS or RLM. Customers running Distributed CATIA 4.13 or earlier use RLM. 4.14 is

the first release where both RLM and iFOR/LS are offered as license managers on AIX. Distributed

CATIA on HP-UX on the other hand has one choice for license manager - iFOR/LS

Heterogeneous license management refers to a floating license scheme where one workstation, AIX or

HP-UX, act as a license server to a mix of HP-UX and AIX CATIA workstations. The one requirement is

that both workstation types use iFOR/LS as their license managers. Thus iFOR/IS provides a high

degree of flexibility for CATIA sites who need to manage heterogeneous Distributed CATIA nodes.

This requires that the AIX nodes be upgraded to a) Distributed CATIA Version 4.14 from 4.13 or earlier,

and b) iFOR/LS from RLM. The CATIA product on HP complies with both conditions.

Note that, in order to move the license server from one workstation to another, a new set of floating

license keys would need to be generated, as the license keys are computed based on the target id of

the server. Refer to the CATIA installation guides for additional information on this topic.

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14 CAT IA PROGRAMMING DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT - GII/IUA

14.1 Introduction

With CATIA's customization capabilities, many customer have invested large amount of resources

developing add-on CATIA applications specific to their design environment. This facility is known as

Graphics Interactive Interface (GII) and Interactive User Access (IUA). GII for example allows theuser to add new push button in the CATIA GUI which performs a custom function. IUAs have more of

a command line interface.

For some customers, these add-on applications, largely on mainframe CATIA, constitute their

intellectual property and they see them as indispensable. The saying goes "If the Core CATIA product

is the engine, the customized CATIA add-on applications make up the rest of the airplane". One sees

two trends among these customers. In the short term, migrate these add-on applications to the

workstation. Longer term, abandon them altogether and have Dassault or third-party software vendor

incorporate the needed specialized functionality into the core Distributed CATIA software.

It is in the migration activity that many CATIA users/developers, for the first time, are exposed to

UNIX development and management tools not available on the mainframe. Because of the on-going

requirement to maintain and enhance existing applications, and to develop new ones, software

development is a key concern of many CATIA sites. Advanced features available in the HP Softbench

and xdb tools have shown to be immensely beneficial to developers migrating applications in the UNIX

environment. A well tailored Softbench implementation can provide significant productivity boost to

developers migrating to UNIX.

14.2 H-P Software Tool Requirements

The bare requirements are the FORTRAN and C compilers. See the compiler sections elsewhere in

this document for version numbers. The XDB or DDE debuggers are useful. And Softbench is very

useful. CATIA documentation have a lot of information on GII and IUA development. Two things

worth remembering:

1 GII and IUA applications are developed using shared libraries. Thus the +z compiler option isused. The resulting shared objects, just as all of the core CATIA shared libraries, need to

have their file mode changed to read/execute using the "chmod 555" command.

2 When building the executable, the f77 command should be used to bind the shared objects.

When this is done, the /bin/ld loader is called implicitly, and a number of necessary

FORTRAN libraries are automatically linked. Moreover, f77 option -WI,-ldld should be the

last option on the f77 line to bring in the dynamic loader.

14.3 Example

A typical compiler command line is:

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To see exactly what the compiler and linker are doing, add the -v option:

/disc0/mr_t/ds/ftn 7=> f77 +z -v -o K1 k1.f -Wl,-ldld

LPATH is: /lib/pa1.1:/usr/lib/pa1.1:/lib:/usr/lib

/usr/lib/f77pass1 --h -Oq00,al,ag,cn,Lm,sz,Ic,vo,lc,mf po,es,rs,sp,in,pi,fa,pe,Rr,Fl! k1.f kl.ok1.f:

xlnvol:

entry xlnvol:

MAIN:

/b i n / l d -x / l i b / c r t 0 .o -F b / u s r / l ib / u f7 7 p a ss1 k 1 . o - l d l d - l c l - l i b isa m s t u b - l c -o K 1

/disco/mr_t/ds/ftn 8=>

This reveals the real FORTRAN compiler as /usr/lib/f77pass1 which is used to compile the source file

(or files), the different libraries which f77 passes to the linker, including the FORTRAN-specific

libraries /usr/lib/uf77pass1 and /usr/lib/libisamstub.sl.

To generate symbol table for the debugger, the -g option would need to be added.

14.4 Debugging G I I And I U A Applications With Xdb

What follow is a step-by-step guide used successfully at a European automotive CATIA customer. The

issue here is to be able to debug a customer developed application that is fully integrated with the

dynamic load mechanism in CATIA. So how can the customer debug his own application through

CATIA?

1- Prepare your compile/build environment for debugging. The "-g" option must be set for the

FORTRAN compiler. One way to set this option can be through the FCOPTS environment

variable as follows:

export FCOPTS="-g"

2- Use the CATIA supplied tools such as 'dcg' to build your application. The net result is actually

a shared library that you will be able to debug. For the purpose of this discussion we will use

CUST_APPLI as the name of the target GII application.

cd /home/catusr/devcatia/gii/CUST_APPLI (where the source code resides)

dcg CUST_APPLI ( will compile and build a shared lib named CUST_APPLI )

my CUST_APPLI /home/catusr/steplib ( move the shared lib to the directory where all

the other applications have or will be moved to ).

3- Since the HP-UX dynamic loader ( /lib/dld.dl ) does require that a shared library use a sI

extension, you must either rename the file or create a soft link to comply to this rule:

cd /home/catusr/steplib

In -s CUST APPLI CUST APPLI.sI

4- Start the xdb session with the following arguments:

xdb -s -1 /home/catusr/steplib/CUST_APPLI.sI /usr/catia/code/steplib where

-> -s: for debugging shared libraries

-> -1: to specify the path to the shared lib for which debug information must be loaded

-> /usr/catia/cfg/code/steplib/: path to the CATIA executable.

5- from the xdb session, start CATIA as:

> r CATIA 64 0 0 0

then your favorite CATIA environment will start.

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4 In the Tool Start dialog box select PROFILE from the list of tools to start. Click on New

Context... button and set the context of the debugger to the complete path of the CATIA

executable. For example: /usr/lpp/catia/unload/code/steplib/CA1STAAG

5 Press the Start button to start up the Performance Analyzer.

6 From the Main menu select Options:Process Parameters. In Process Parameters dialog boxselect " Adopt Existing Process".

7 Select the process to be adopted by entering its PID in "Match Expression In ps(1) Listing". If

you don't know the PID , select "View ps listing" and then select the CATIA process to be

adopted. Select "OK".

8 By default Softbench Performance Analyzer does not list the shared library functions in the

profile report. Only the dynamically loaded library will be listed. To list the names of the

library functions in the dynamically loaded libraries the name of the library must be included

in the Sample Collection dialog box. To do so select Options:Sample Collection Parameters

and enter the library name in'Include Libraries Matching Expression'. Press the Add button.

9 Now bring up your application in CATIA and simultaneously press the Collect Samples button

in the Performance Analyzer. You can terminate sampling at any time by pressing 'Terminate

Sampling'. Once the sample set is collected appropriate Profile Report can be generated.

15 CATIA CODE PAGE AND NATIONAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT

The HP version of CATIA Solutions Version 4.1.4 uses the ISO 8859-1 code page for European and

American languages. The AIX version of CATIA 4.1.4 traditionally uses the IBM 850 code page, although

ISO 8859-1 is now supported. Users wishing to share model data between the AIX and HP-UX versions of

CATIA will need to have all models in the ISO 8859-1 code page on the HP. This can be done tranparently

- the IBM 850 translation is done in the background, although there is a processing cost in the time it

takes for the HP system to do the translation in the background. This process can also be done in batch

mode. A number of facilities within CATIA allows for transparent interoperability between the 850 and

ISO 8859-1 code pages. These include CATAIX, CATIMP, and CATDATA. Users should refer to the

appropriate CATIA documentation for further details. The following CATIA PTF is available for code

page: UB16949. There is a good document entitled CATIA Solutions 414 FR4 National Language Support

Administrator's Guide, March 22 1995 that is distributed when this PTF is ordered.

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16 CATIA APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE PARTNERSHIP

CATIA Application Architecture (CAA) is the term Dassault Systemes uses to describe its collaboration

with a select group of software houses who develop complementary, well-integrated, sector specific

software applications or modules used in conjunction with CATIA. As with other MCAD vendors, these

CAA partners are vital in delivering niche solutions critical to many CATIA customers, but for which

Dassault has neither the motivation nor the ROI justification to develop itself. HP is actively working

with these partners to ensure timely delivery of their CAA applications to the HP platform. For HP

availability information, customers should contact the CAA partner directly. Of course, some CATIA

customers may be using other third party tools which are not part of the CAA program.

16.1 C A A Partner List

The CAA partners include:

Dassault OEM (a.k.a. Original Software Developers)

Mental Images: Image Rendering & Ray Tracing Algorithms

ALEPH Technologies: Rob/Kin Collision Avoidance Algorithms

Manufacturing

RADAN: Sheet Metal Manufacturing

CENIT: PostProcessor, Special Machine Programmation, Simulation

IAMS: Feed and Speed Cutting Condition Tables

CGTech: Material Removal Simulation

Analysis

MOLDFLOW: CAT-MF Plastic Mold Injection Analysis

CADSi: Dynamics (CATDADS) and Stress Analysis (POLYFEM)

MSC/PDA: Finite Element Analysis (CATEXPRESS, CAT_FEA)

Machine Manufacture

MIECO/MISEC Robot builder from Matsushita Group

Design Automation

DEBIS: Large Tool Die Design

ICAD: Knowledge Based Engineering Design Tool Generator

Electric Device Engineering

MENTOR GRAPHICS: E3LCABLE access to Lcable Schematics

AEC Solutions

Stone & Webster: 'COMMANDS'

DVO: Vessel & Pipe Catalog

Georgia Tech: GTSTRUDL structural analysis

An up to date list can be obtained from your CATIA service representative. Thus in addition to the

core CATIA products developed by Dassault, the production environment of a CATIA customer may

include a suite of in-house developed GII and/or IUA applications, as well as a number of third party

CAA applications.

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16.2 Application Prerequisites On H-P

A number of CAA partners are already running on HP. The first four applic

opt hp-ux for catia

Documents