Trends in CAD/CAM that will shape the future

Modern Machine Shop, July, 1991 by Stewart D. Siebell

A similar but somewhat more powerful capability is that of variational geometry. A variational design system completely defines the problem with a series of simultaneous equations. Thus, it offers greater flexibility by removing restrictions on interdependencies and solves all the values at once. If engineers change any type of condition or vary any design parameter, the variational design system can still adjust all other design parameters to arrive at a new solution that accounts for interactions among all the conditions defined.

A word about rapid prototyping is appropriate here. Prior to full-scale production, most manufacturers produce multiple prototypes in order to see and touch a part directly, to hold and examine the thing without recourse to abstract geometry. This step can involve significant time and cost.

Technology has been and is continuing to be introduced that reduces this time and cost substantially. The original technology is termed stereolithography but other approaches such as fused deposition modeling (Figure 3) have also appeared. In all cases, systems utilize the geometry from a CAD model as the starting point. Typically, the model is then mathematically sliced to obtain the geometry at a given elevation. Material is then deposited, layer by layer, to build the physical model.

Changes In User Interfaces

Significant changes will take place in user interfaces to a graphics-based computing system. These changes will make the computer more like an extension of the user's mind. The impact of a new user interface was made strikingly clear with the introduction of the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer Corp. A totally new look and feel for the user was created by the mouse input, windows, pop-up menus, icons, and so on that were introduced with the Mac.

Proprietary graphical user interfaces (GUI) are giving way to pseudo standard solutions for UNIX-based systems. At the lowest level, the X windowing system serves as the clear standard. At the next higher level, where the look and feel is created, the Open Software Foundation's Motif and the UNIX International's Open Look are the two primary competitors for a de facto GUI standard. Stand-alone GUIs based upon these standards are likely to become available and serve as common front-ends to CAD/CAM systems that incorporate a variety of different applications.

Other innovations on the near horizon include multimedia, voice input and virtual reality. In multimedia systems, documents or files will be created with audio, animation, and/or video, as well as the conventional data, text, and graphics. This combination is then simultaneously presented on the display. Multimedia input will allow the user to absorb greater quantities of information by using more than one sense to process information. A message could include voice comments, animation, text, and full-motion color video--even music.

Voice input is likely to become practical in this decade. The user can then enter commands to a CAD/CAM system by voice as opposed to keyboard, mouse, tablet, and other input forms.