3 ms·

I think CATIA V4 (CAD software) was big on SGI - at least that's what I used an Indy for back in the day. I believe V4 didn't run on the PC, so you needed a wor

I think CATIA V4 (CAD software) was big on SGI - at least that's what I used an Indy for back in the day. I believe V4 didn't run on the PC, so you needed a workstation anyway. Don't know if one can find a copy anywhere but I think it would be fun to use it again. It was solid software with a good UI, quite different from CATIA V5 which (also) ran on the PC and had a very colorful and noisy UI. EDIT: After googling SGI workstation models I think what I used was actually most likely an O2[1]. Great design, I remembered its distinct look even after so many years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_O2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_O2

mhd 6y ago
Heh, I was doing CAD workstation support about 15 years ago, when there was the big switch between CATIA V4 and V5. SGIs were mostly Octanes plus a few bigger irons, I think, but it also ran on HP-UX and some Sun workstations. There wasn't a lot of movement in the 3D workstation space at the time, whereas PC 3D accelerators were taking off big time. So you ended up with a system that was faster, a lot cheaper and where the regular PC maintenance software and infrastructure could be used (boy, homogenous Unix devops was a nightmare). Having said that, CATIA was more a workhorse CAD and CAE software, so probably not the best to show off neat UIs, and amongst engineers it had a somewhat ponderous reputation.
- ddingus 6y ago
  I ran similar and built up some pretty big systems. Some software, made on IRIX, like Alias and I-DEAS did show it all off. Other apps ran great, but did their own thing no matter what UNIX you were on. Then again, some of those interfaces were amazing in their own way. I would count CATIA R5 in that group for sure.
- weinzierl 6y ago
  This fits with my experience and I agree that CATIA V4 UI isn't the most exciting. It is solid though and something many people spent 9 to 5, 200+ d/y with, so I thought it could be interesting for octorian to experience what working with these machines really felt like back in the day.

mhd 6y ago

Heh, I was doing CAD workstation support about 15 years ago, when there was the big switch between CATIA V4 and V5. SGIs were mostly Octanes plus a few bigger irons, I think, but it also ran on HP-UX and some Sun workstations. There wasn't a lot of movement in the 3D workstation space at the time, whereas PC 3D accelerators were taking off big time. So you ended up with a system that was faster, a lot cheaper and where the regular PC maintenance software and infrastructure could be used (boy, homogenous Unix devops was a nightmare). Having said that, CATIA was more a workhorse CAD and CAE software, so probably not the best to show off neat UIs, and amongst engineers it had a somewhat ponderous reputation.

ddingus 6y ago
I ran similar and built up some pretty big systems. Some software, made on IRIX, like Alias and I-DEAS did show it all off. Other apps ran great, but did their own thing no matter what UNIX you were on. Then again, some of those interfaces were amazing in their own way. I would count CATIA R5 in that group for sure.
weinzierl 6y ago
This fits with my experience and I agree that CATIA V4 UI isn't the most exciting. It is solid though and something many people spent 9 to 5, 200+ d/y with, so I thought it could be interesting for octorian to experience what working with these machines really felt like back in the day.