The 777 is the first Boeing airliner 100% designed using 3-D solid modeling technology. The software used is CATIA (computer-aided, three-dimensional interactive application) developed by Dassault Systems of France and is marketed in the United States through IBM. The 777 division used more than 2,200 CATIA workstations networked to an eight-mainframe computing cluster, this being the largest single CAD project anywhere requiring 3 Tera-Bytes (3,000,000,000,000) of data to store the information. In addition to being a 3-D design tool, CATIA is also used as a digital pre-assembly tool. In the past, Boeing built a full-scale non-flying mockup of the complete aircraft to check fit or interference problems at a cost of 2.25 million dollars. Since the various systems were designed independently, it was necessary to make sure that a bolt did not occupy the same physical space as a hydraulic line, or that an electrical conduit did not run across the middle of a ventilation duct. The mockup was also used to check accessibility of all the parts for maintenance work. With a 3-D database that everyone uses simultaneously, the interference problems are eliminated, and the access question is answered by maneuvering a digital "mechanic" in 3-D space.
Originally developed by Shadd Shokralla
