How to Configure the Ultimate CATIA Workstation

If you’re in the market for a Dassault Systèmes CATIA work-station, you should begin your research by taking a look at your workflow. First, determine the primary function of your hardware. Does your workflow mainly consist of design and modeling or real-time visualization and simu-lation? Specific tasks require specific configurations. You don’t want to overpay for compute power you can’t use, but at the same time, you want to take advantage of extra horsepower when it is available in order to stay productive and maximize ROI.

CATIA CertificationIt’s always wise to start with CATIA certified hardware. Although there are many workstations on the market, only an elite group have been tested and certified by Dassault Systèmes to run its V6 CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite. Both 3DBOXX 4150 XTREME and 3DBOXX 8950 from BOXX Technologies have achieved CATIA® certification. BOXX is also strategically partnered with Dassault Systèmes and designated as a SolidWorks Solution Partner.

The Core of Your WorkflowIn a design and modeling centric workflow, CATIA would be considered a frequency bound application (meaning that it predominantly uses only one core). Since the frequency of that core determines performance more than any other variable, a workstation with less cores (but higher frequen-cy) is ideal. BOXX recommends: 3DBOXX 4150 XTREME• World’s fastest CATIA-certified solution: over clocked Intel® Core™ i7 (4.3 GHz)• Compact chassis and liquid cooling for quiet, cool performance• Up to two professional graphics cards

Design and modeling in CATIA (single threaded)

Real-Time VisualizationReal-time rendering and visualization of CATIA models allow you to view your models in a photo-realistic envi-ronment. As a designer, you can instantly see the results of any modification and thus iterate and refine at record speed. Because CATIA Live Rendering is accelerated by GPUs, BOXX recommends 3DBOXX 8950, the most ad-vanced GPU workstation certified for CATIA:

3DBOXX 8950

• CATIA certified with up to 5 GPUs (1x K2000 with 4x Tesla K20)

• Advanced multi-card configurations for visualiza tion, simulation, and computation.

CATIA Live Rendering on a 3DBOXX 8950

Overclocking MattersWhile brand name computer manufacturers focus most of their attention on mass produced, general use PCs, BOXX offers professional grade workstations custom configured and overclocked for engineering applications. And with the ability to achieve up to 4.3 GHz, overclocked 3DBOXX XTREME workstations hold a decided advantage over com-petitors’ top-of-the-line models which can only manage 3.7 GHz— the speed threshold since 2006.

“It’s the frequency plateau,” says Tim Lawrence, BOXX Technologies’ VP of Engineering. “Improvements to ar-chitecture have helped somewhat, but not enough. With processor speeds remaining virtually stagnant for years, overclocking is the only way to significantly increase core speed and thus, performance.”

However, the value of overclocking doesn’t begin and end with speed. Faster processes result in an accelerated work-flow, greater efficiency, higher productivity, and in general, a better overall user experience.

And if you’re concerned regarding the effects of overclock-ing on a processor, rest assured knowing BOXX has shipped overclocked systems since 2008 and with thousands of systems in the field, the company has not experienced a processor failure rate any different from that of standard processor systems. In short, there has been no statistical variance whatsoever. The reason for this is that BOXX works closely with Intel to stay within the parameters of safe overclocking, providing increased performance with-out applying significantly larger increases in voltage. And like all BOXX systems, XTREME systems are backed by a three year warranty.

SSD StorageWhen working with large data sets, BOXX recommends Intel Solid State drives for fast read and write speeds. De-pending upon your specific needs, individual SSD capacity ranges from 120GB to 800GB. RAID configurations are also available.

Graphics CardAlthough an NVIDIA Quadro K600 card is serviceable, BOXX recommends the NVIDIA Quadro K2000 as an ideal mid range graphics card for most CATIA workflows. BOXX workstations are certified with NVIDIA’s K2000 and K4000 graphic cards.

GPUs For ComputeWhen it comes to GPUs for tasks like simulation and ren-dering, BOXX workstations are certified with the NVIDIA Tesla K20. These boards are proven to be fast, reliable, and well-supported for enterprise applications.

RAMThe amount of RAM you choose will be largely dictated by the size and complexity of your data sets. A minimum of 24GB is recommended. A maximum of 32GB is available in the overclocked 3DBOXX 4150 XTREME, but if necessary, you can go up to 512GB in the five-GPU 3DBOXX 8950.

Rendering & Simulation: Get Dedicated If you have the need to render CATIA models in any CPU-based render engine (like KeyShot) then you should consid-er off-loading those tasks to a BOXX renderPRO, a personal, dedicated rendering solution.

Easily configurable to accommodate any workflow, render-PRO frees your workstation and brings dedicated rendering to your desk side. Available with Intel® Xeon® E5-2600v2 series processors, renderPRO features up to 24 processing cores. It’s key advantage, however, is that renderPRO en-ables users to deliver complex projects within budget and on schedule by drastically reducing rendering time.

Increasing Productivity and ProfitThe key to increasing productivity and profit is to ac-com¬plish more in less time. Faster turnaround means fewer employee hours invested and more time for new projects and clients—and that means greater income for your business. So when you configure the ultimate CATIA workstation, consider solutions you won’t find anywhere else delivering performance you can’t get anywhere else—CATIA-certified BOXX workstations.

More Info at: http://www.boxxtech.com/Solutions/catiaFor sales inquiries call us at 1-512-835-0400 / SALES@BOXXTECH.COM

BOXX renderPRO

3DBOXX 4150 XTREME