What is CADDS and why

CADDS is a totally separate CAD package from Pro/Engineer but still supported by PTC just becuase some very large defense and some automotive (although now going to UGS and CATIA, as I heard) and some aerospace still use it. It was originally developed by a company called Computervision which was later aquired by PTC.

CADDS is much like Pro/Engineer is some ways as some of Pro/Engineer was developed from it. For example, a modeling tree is present as well as many parametric modeling features. Don't quote me on this but I believe it can only be run through a X Windows system (even inside of Windows with Exceed) much in the same way old MSC apps are run in Windows (Easy5, for example). Therefore, if true, it will behave alot like a UNIX System V interface rather than a Windows which can be wierd on modern systems.

If you call up PTC for a license for CADDS nowadays, PTC will push you HARD to get a Pro/Engineer license instead becuase as time goes on its becoming less and less dealt with inside PTC (their own KB and documentation proves this). I am not even sure that they support CADDS for non-existing customers. See this link for more details:

Nowadays, I believe there are translaters in Pro/Engineer to import CADDS models, however, I do not know if they can be said vice-versa. If you are looking at CADDS or Pro/Engineer (from a buying standpoint), I would strongly recommend Pro/Engineer becuase, even though CADDS 5iR14 is a fairly new realease, PTC is convincing customers to move away from it. I remember back in circa 2002, when PTC tried to move away from Pro/E and go into the PLM market exculsively with Windchill, so I don't know how long CADDS will last.

The last time I used CADDS was back at my school's old CAD workstation (Apollo workstation I think?). It was kinda like working with ANSYS nowadays, but a much better modeler than ANSYS (obviously).

If you want a full history on CADDS, try this link,

I am actually surpised you can find information on this product anymore, after PTC aquired Rasna, Inc. (original makers of Mechanica, which turned into Pro/Mechanica), you can't even find a wikipedia article on it.

Hope this helps.

--Adam Joseph Cook, Mechanical Engineer

I know nuthin about it but Adam's reply and links piqued my curiosity. A few additional references ...

http://66.28.40.12:82/read/messages?id=58436"I can't speak for the company on this and we are not supposed to comment on our specific software and business 'models.' But between you and me and from the perspective of the trenches the trend is to use Pro/E on all new projects and keep Cadds around for modifying and maintaining legacy (old) projects."

however ...

(ppt presentation)

targeting emerging markets (?)...

Don't quote me on this but

Correct, when installing Cadds on a PC, the first thing it does is to install the Exceed X windows server. Makes supporting Cadds, well, rather interesting.....

Yes, PTC tried very hard to move Cadds customers over to Pro/E, the problem is that many Cadds users work on very large assemblies which simply kill Pro/E. As an example, I've never yet heard of anybody using Pro/E for commercial ship design, let alone naval vessels (which are several orders of magnitude more complex), yet Cadds is used by major shipyards world wide.

The lack of enthusiasm in PTC for Cadds is causing severe problems here though. BAE Systems in the UK are doing the Astute class nuclear submarines as a completely digital design on Cadds. They have had massive problems & delays in the project, quite a few of which have been attributed to the software. Seems that they have been experiencing update times of many minutes working on the large assemblies. PTC have no other software which can cope with work of this complexity, so I would think that most of the remaining large Cadds users are looking at Catia as a replacement. Here in Denmark, I do not believe that there is a single Cadds installation left. Most of them went to Solid Works & Power Shape after the local supporter went broke (PTC refused to allow the Swedish Cadds reseller to take over the Danish customers, and told them that they would have to call PTC's hotline for support. A non ideal situation, since the support contracts for Cadds specified local language support ....)

Going waay back, Cadds actually had it's roots in the Medusa 3D package developed by CIS in the UK. Computervision (which at that time was a software division of Prime Computers, who were one of the 2 sources for Medusa - its a complex story) bought the rights & developed it into what was perhaps the most advanced 3D system available in the mid 90's. The range of options for Cadds is huge - I never actually found out what they were all for, but the configuration screen was several hundred lines of options.

A great pity that CV had such financial problems and that PTC never saw fit to develop it further.

Regards, Steve.

I worked for an aerospace company that had Pro/E and CADDS5i.

As I understood it, CADDS was not parametric, but it was an advanced 3D modeling package. Our CAD group had some pretty nifty routines automated in CADDs that allowed them to construct 3D surface models overtop of scanned point data. It also worked elegantly to lay out 3d model surfaces for fabrication from flat stock.

That company has been downsized drastically, so it's hard to say if /how they're using it now, but their push was towards Pro/E.

Dave