The distinction between CAD packages and solid modellers is becoming blurred. The industry-standard CAD package, AutoCAD, has had solid modelling capabilities since release 11, in effect producing a very good graphical interface to a solid modeller, with the same potential for producing photo-realistic output as with surface modellers. Similarly, research at IBM, beginning with their Winchester Solid Modeller (WINSOM), has been towards developing data visualization as well as engineering capabilities (Burridge et al. 1989, 548). It is this sort of blurring which suggests that three-dimensional modelling can no longer be seen as software-defined, but rather must be problem-defined.
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Internet Archaeology
Last updated: Thu May 1 1997