H&K Gun Design Software?

[bunthius]

Hey, very curious about this.... Does anyone know what type of software H&K uses to design its guns?

What is this program here at 4:09?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FcsY0zaL3j4

[FlatBlackBoomStick]

It's probably Solidworks, but proprietarily written for HK.

[AviatorDave]

I know what it's not - it's not SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Inventor, Pro/Engineer, I-deas, UGNX, or Catia V5. It's definitely not anything written especially for them by any of the above companies either. There are companies that are magnitudes larger than HK like Ford, Nissan, and Boeing that don't have exclusive software. Some of them used to have proprietary software, but because they wrote it in-house. The reason is that it takes hundreds of thousands of man-hours to write a solid modeling cad software. I worked for a startup cad company for several years. They had spent roughly $10,000,000 developing it before they had anything to deliver to the market, and it was still not useable. And that was with a development staff 1/10th the size of the market leading companies.

I've been designing on all the above cad systems since the mid 1990s, which is about when the very first versions of SolidWorks, SolidEdge, and Inventor were released to the market.

It is possibly Catia V4, or possibly some European software not popular in the US.

But I've wondered the same thing myself. I'd like to know what it is.

[Weirdguy]

Man I've seen that video plenty of times, and I just noticed that 1911 on the desk next to the L85, right before 4:09.

[AviatorDave]

Another mystery is history.

It is without a doubt Catia V4.

Compare this picture with the general screen menu layout at 4:09 in the linked Youtube video, and then look at the coordinate axes triad (the little 3-legged thing in the upper corner of the screen that looks like it's made out of a red ball, and 3 blue balls connected by sticks) at 4:11 in the video. The menu layout and the axis triad are the same. And also, that darker colored bar across the bottom of the screen is very unique in cad software.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/508249718_e5edf0eb4e.jpg?v=0


And if you think you might want to try it, good luck. It was replaced by Catia V5 in 1998. V4 was never ported to Windows, it will run on Unix workstations only.

[bunthius]

Another mystery is history.

It is without a doubt Catia V4.....

Dave, you've definitely busted this one. I've worked in the media arts industry for 6 years and have a heavy background in 3DSMax and Maya but nothing to the technical degree of the programs you've mentioned. I am looking for a new challenge as my work has become less so. I'd be very interested in getting my hands on this to see what can happen.

Thanks a lot for looking into that for me.

[Chase]

PM sent.

[halo2304]

That's a pretty cool video. I noticed the 1911, or at least what was NOT an H&K handgun. Working in the automotive industry I know that Toyota used to use TogoCAD that, as far as I know, was written specifically for them. I've never used it or even seen it but they are now using Catia, as is Chrysler. GM is using UG NX3 and Nissan, if I recall correctly, is switching to UG as well.

In my opinion, UG is THEE most frustrating program to install, never mind use! And for the price, they ought to install it for you!

[AviatorDave]

That's a pretty cool video. I noticed the 1911, or at least what was NOT an H&K handgun. Working in the automotive industry I know that Toyota used to use TogoCAD that, as far as I know, was written specifically for them. I've never used it or even seen it but they are now using Catia, as is Chrysler. GM is using UG NX3 and Nissan, if I recall correctly, is switching to UG as well.

In my opinion, UG is THEE most frustrating program to install, never mind use! And for the price, they ought to install it for you!

I have no knowledge of GM, but you're absolutely right about Nissan. They used predominantly I-Deas for years and years, as did Ford. In fact, there are a few custom modules in the I-Deas installation that were written just for Nissan. And since I-Deas was bought out by UGS (and then bought out by Siemens), they are migrating everyone to UGNX.

As for the install, I guess I'm just used to it. I install FlexLM stuff all the time.

But I'd be really surprised if HK was still using Catia V4. I'd be shocked if they weren't on V5 now. But here's what I'd like - the native part files for, oh, I don't know, the MP5, UMP, GMG, etc. Oh, the possibilities. :)