Product Data Interfaces In Cad Cam Applications

Product Data Interfaces in CAD/CAM Applications

Interest in product data exchange and interfaces in the CAD/CAM area is steadi ly growing. The rapidly increasing graphics applications in engineering and sci ence has led to a great variety of heterogeneous hardware and software products. This has become a major obstacle in the progress of systems integration. To improve this situation CAD/CAM users have called for specification and imple mentation of standardized product data interfaces. These needs resulted in the definition of preliminary standards in this area. Since 1975 activities have been concentrated on developing standards for three major areas: - computer graphics, - sculptured surfaces, and - data exchange for engineering drawings. The Graphical Kernel System (GKS) has been accepted as an international standard for graphics programming in 1984, Y14.26M (IGES) was adopted as an American Standard in 1981 and the VDA Surface Interface (VDAFS) has been accepted by the German National Standardization Institute (DIN NAM 96.4). Although considerable progress has been achieved, the complexity of the subject and the dynamics of the CAD/CAM-development still calls for more generality and compatibility of the interfaces. This has resulted in an inter national discussion on further improvements of the standards. The major goal of this book is to bring together the different views and experiences in industry and university in the area of Product Data Interfaces, thereby contributing to the ongoing work in improving the state of the art.

Product Data Interfaces in CAD/CAM Applications

GKS Theory and Practice

Eurographics, the European Association for Computer Graphics, has always been an important forum for discussions and presentation of results concerning the first ISO Graphical Standard, GKS (the Graphical Kernel System) and later of its three-dimensional extension, GKS-3D. This book is a collection of those articles which have appeared within the framework of Eurographics in the past 5 years, and which still contain, even after several years, valid and interesting results concerning the problems arising in connection with GKS. Some of these papers help the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the standard; others deal with general implementation problems, and finally there are some presentations of specific algorithms usable also for a GKS or GKS-3D implementation. The book may be of a particular interest to those specialists who intend to implement a GKS package or some similar graphics subsystem and who can therefore make direct use of the experiences reflected in this collection. The book should also be a valuable supplement in university courses concerned with teaching the principles of implementing device-independent computer graphics.