Students Learn Design and Engineering on CATIA and Revit at Miami Dade College

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/19/09

Students in the School of Architecture at Miami Dade College's North Campus in Florida will be working on applications from CATIA from French company Dassault Systemes and Revit from Autodesk.

CATIA is used by the aerospace industry to design airplanes, as well as by architects to design highly complex buildings. The software is also being used by students at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Revit, an engineering program, allows the student to produce a 3D file that contains all the elements in a building, such as walls and windows, which are then packaged with specifications, size, material, and structural characteristics. When an element is changed during the design process, it's automatically updated in the ensuing related drawings. This feature, called parametric relationship, helps architects and engineers avoid the enormous liability issue of having to remember to make the changes manually to all related drawings.

"It is a changing working environment where engineers and architects will begin to shift to this technology," said José Lozano, director of the college's School of Architecture. "Students learn cutting edge technology and gain a very hands-on experience."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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