CATIA vs OpenPISCO

CATIA is a parametric modeling and engineering product with tools for assembly design, sheet-metal work, and surface modeling. It supports cloud collaboration. Platform availability depends on the CATIA product: browser applications run on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, while CATIA V5 sheet-metal software is available for Windows. File format support also varies by product. STEP import and export are listed, while DXF, STL, VRML, and IGES are supported by other CATIA V5 products. CATIA is paid, with pricing on request. Buyers should match the intended modeling work, collaboration needs, platform, and file exchange requirements to the specific CATIA product. Its web and Windows listings do not mean that every CATIA capability is offered on both platforms.

OpenPisco is an open source research and development platform for topology optimization using the level-set method. It combines optimization algorithms, direct and adjoint analyses, remeshing tools and level-set algorithms, with methods for fixed-mesh shape capturing and body-fitted mesh shape tracking. The design process supports grids, unstructured meshes and body-fitted meshes, and includes an interface to MMG3D for remeshing. Users can work through a Python library and API, the OpenPiscoCL command-line application, or a graphical application. The Python interface targets developers and advanced users; the command line supports automation, batch processing and HPC execution, while the GUI is suited to visualization. Plugins allow custom mesh readers, optimization algorithms and physics solvers to be added without changing existing source code. Documented external solver options include Code_Aster, FreeFem, ZSet and OpenFOAM; an internal finite element solver is also available. Built on the Muscat library, OpenPisco is intended for industrial and academic research, including rapid prototyping of topology optimization methods. Documentation reports installation on Ubuntu Linux, macOS, Windows 10 and WSL 20.04.