abstracts biographies
to be able to perform a variety of tasks.
MODELS, REPRESENTATIONS,
INTERFACES
The evolution of style of interaction
R A Guedj (SiGRID s.a., ZA Courtaboeuf,
91 Les U/is, France)
Interactive systems are attractive to a wide
range of users. They have evolved with
technological advances in hardware and
software. Understanding interaction has two
related goals : increasing cooperation, and
therefore productivity, automating the
design of satisfactory user interfaces. From
the recent past, characteristics and features
of modern interactive systems are delineated,
current principles for interface design are
given. Three areas of research which may in-
fluence style of interaction are considered :
formal specification techniques, multi-
media interaction, artificial intelligence.
In conclusion for user interface design, one
particular area of importance is stressed :
selection of appropriate abstractions.
E x p e r t systems in process p l a n n i n g
B J Davies, I L Darbyshire, A J Wright
(Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Manchester Institute of
Science and Technology, Manchester, UK)
A t the present stage of development of
CADCAM systems, the link between CAD
and CAM still relies heavily on human inter-
vention; but product life is decreasing and
product variety is increasing, so increased
CADCAM automation is desirable and lead
times in the production of new models, or
model variants, must be reduced.
The Expert Systems approach provides a
means of automating the link between
Design to Manufacture, and a program
called EXCAP for the integrated design
and manufacture for rotational parts using
a POPLOG shell is described.
The application of the Interactive
Graphics Exchange Standard (IGES) to
transfer product models from a CAD system
into a general purpose computer CAM
environment is also described.
The interface between humans and
their computer workstations
G Kram mer (Computer and A utomatlon
Research institute, Budapest, Hungary)
Interactive workstations are computers
installed in an office environment and
equipped with a collection of software
v o l u m e 18 n u m b e r 7 s e p t e m b e r 1 9 8 6
always a need to undertake development
In some cases a workstation is used like a
tool, eg when typing a letter; in some others
it is more like a partner. The capabilities and
the role of the user's partner should be
clearly identified and a consistent inter-
action interface developed.
New geometric modeller TIPS/GS
for geometric simulation
Norio Okino (Hohkaido University, Sapporo,
060 Japan)
In spite of big expectation and long history,
CADCAM systems based on solid modelling
make slow progress. It would seem that
something is wrong with the solid modelling
technology. This paper describes how to
open the way for advanced solid modeller.
First, it is discussed what problems there
are in present solid modellers. Second, some
strategies to solve the problems are pro-
posed and finally, development of TIPS/
Geometric Simulator is described in which
the proposed strategies are demonstrated.
TIPS/GS is a new solid modeller which con-
sists of assembly simulator with interactive
input interface using shaded picture, engin-
eering simulator, NC simulator and robot
simulator.
PLANT DESIGN
Plant design o n m i c r o c o m p u t e r s
C H Wells (Cadtrah Corporation, 823 Kifer
Road, Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USA)
Plant design CAD systems demand sophisti-
cated software because of the complex
interaction between a database and pictures
generated from it. Creation of 3D images,
and the viewing of these shapes is discussed
in this paper. A solid modelling approach,
combined with a segmented viewfile con-
cept, is described. This solid modelling
system is based on a realtime interpreter
and the viewing system is an extension of
SIGGRAPH CORE and GKS concepts.
Systems i n t e g r a t i o n in process p l a n t
engineering
S Ahmed Abbas and Mike A Hobdell
(Whessoe Technical & Computing Systems,
L~rllngton, UK)
Although many organizations now use 3D
modelling systems for process plant design
activities, it is recognised that there is
work to integrate the supplied systems with
specific company requirements. In particu-
lar, the 'downstream engineering' functions,
ie detailed analysis, fabrication and con-
struction, have yet to be addressed in a
comprehensive integrated manner, with full
management control over the documents
generated. This paper describes an approach
adopted for the engineering of pipework,
illustrated by application to a large-scale
nuclear project.
CAD 1
An algorithm for determining
consistency and m a n u f a c t u r i n g o f
dimensioned drawings
Philip Todd (Computer Research Labs,
Tehtronix, USA)
In one dimensional case (vertical or hori-
zontal dimensioning of a parallel sided
object) the question of whether an object is
consistently dimensioned may be answered
simply in graph theoretical terms. The rep-
resentation as a graph of a dimensioning
scheme has vertices corresponding to the
faces of the object and possesses an edge
between two vertices if the corresponding
pair of faces is dimensioned. A one dimen-
sional scheme is consistent if its graph is a
tree.
To extend this work to two dimensions,
we define a new generalization of the graph
theoretical 2-tree, by relaxing the mutual
adjaceny condition on vertices adjacent to
the new vertex in the usual inductive defini-
tion of the 2-tree. The graph theory yields
an algorithm for detecting consistency in
dimensioned drawings. The algorithm also
yields a construction sequence for convert-
ing a dimensioned drawing into a cartesian
coordinate representation.
Our algorithm for automatic determina-
tion of the consistency of dimensioned
engineering drawings can contribute to
cost-effective CAD by checking for under
or over-dimensioning at the final drafting
stage of the CAD process. As the algorithm
yields a method of determining cartesian
coordinates from a consistently dimensioned
drawing, it also provides a mechanism for
geometry entry by dimensioned sketch.
Philip H Todd received BA in mathematics
from Cambridge University in 1977, M.Sc.
from Georgia Tech in 1979 and PhD from
Dundee University in 1986.
He worked on a medical research council
project from 1979 to 1985, investigating
the surface geometry of folding in the ferret
brain, and is the author of Intrinsic Geo-
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