[cad-linux] Re: CAD with server/client architecture
- From: Eric Wilhelm <ewilhelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cad-linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 01:35:14 -0500
> The following was supposedly scribed by
> Ray Greene
> on Monday 12 May 2003 09:16 pm:
>Something occurred to me that I would like to include in a CAD package,
>that is the ability to create custom objects that use formulas to draw the
>object.
>For instance a wooden box manufacturer might have a box design that
>requires different amounts of reinforcing in the box frame, using different
>sizes of timber, depending on the dimensions of the box plus, say, some
>complex stress analysis of the design. If this could be put into code, how
>would you incorporate this in the database? Would the manufacturer have
>to write his own code module for that, then distribute it to anyone who
>required it?
I think this is not really the function of the database. The use of a
database simply allows such things to be done by external programs with a
minimum of non-native data exchange (some people actually transfer data
between drawing and analysis programs via printout and typing!). So to make
your box, you would need a parametric modeling program and some analysis
program. The parametric model could be primarily constructed without the
analysis results, and a few of the parameters could be revised by the
analysis software. This requires them to either be independent variables
(exclusively driven by the analysis and not the modeler), or the two programs
would have to have a way to exchange data as equations rather than numbers.
The latter is a possibility only when using a common database + kernel
(geometry engine), where the former is possible simply by using a common
database.
BTW, this is an instance of using the database where you would want a
real-time connection, but in this case the connection would simply be to the
DB manager running locally on the workstation.
--Eric
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