Application of CAD Modeling for Information Enhancement in Experimental Flow Pattern Studies

Software applications involving interactive computer graphics are made up of several components. One of these is a data modeling component. This data modeling component is often application dependent and therefore difficult to integrate with the data model of other related applications. One solution to this problem is to interface a DBMS with an interactive graphics system to reduce data model dependency and increase sharing of data. This also has the advantage of allowing novice users to use computer graphics by eliminating the need for the user to write complex programs invoking the graphics system.This paper explores these ideas by discussing the implementation of a prototype interface between a relational DBMS and an interactive computer graphics system. It presents both the database structures used to manage the data and the techniques used to design the interface. It concludes by discussing an approach for making the interface portable.

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Interactive graphics is an aid which eliminates the data management problems that arise when manually preparing finite element models. Line and surface data representations of sheet metal automotive stampings are displayed on a cathode ray tube (CRT), and these data are then used for building finite element models. Elements are built by creating node points with the light pen or by using automatic mesh generating techniques. By using the interactive capability, the user immediately sees the results of his modeling decisions and can make changes in his model as a result of viewing his work.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The interactive graphics system allows the user to define his elements, load cases, boundary conditions, and freedom sets without worrying about the grid point or element numbers. All information is communicated through the use of either the light pen or the keyboard. As information is supplied about the model, it is stored in a data base for review and possible change. After the structure is complete, the data base is processed and the information is formatted for either of three finite element codes.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">Use of interactive graphics has helped to produce low error data at a rate not possible by manually modeling from blueprint data.</div>

A restrained least-squares (RLS) computer program and two interactive graphics (IG) systems have been used in combination to refine the structure of deer type III hemoglobin. By alternating applications of RLS with examinations and corrections of the atomic model superposed on electron density maps (IG), the residual has been reduced from ~0.42 to ~0.25 and the sites of dubious fit between model and map reduced to ~6% of the residues or ~3% of the atoms. It was possible to fit routinely ~4600 atoms to X-ray intensity data sets ranging from less than 6000 (9.0-4.0 A resolution) to ~21 500 points (6.0-1.98 A resolution) employing RLS, which uses interatomic distances to retain structural integrity. Convergence was rapid and many shifts greater than 1 A were recorded. An in-house graphics display allowed the placement of atoms not in the original atomic model and GRIP, a fast-response interactive graphics system, was used to correct any gross conformational misfit of the atomic model to the electron density maps. The man hours needed to run both GRIP and RLS is less than previously reported real-space methods. The strategy of how RLS and IG can be best applied and how the molecular structure changed during refinement are discussed.

BIOMOD - An interactive computer graphics system for modeling

This paper concerns the use of interactive computer graphics for processing “systems analysis” network pictures. These pictures typically represent project scheduling networks, computer programming flow diagrams, job-resource simulation block diagrams, decision trees, flow in networks, etc., and are traditionally the planning tools for researchers and planners in the fields of operations research, industrial engineering, and computer science.The purpose of the interactive graphics system is to provide a convenient “drawing board” with which to generate, manipulate, decompose, partition, simplify, and dlsplay network pictures as means of achieving rapid convergence in man-machine experiments.This research is in connection with the Bio-technology Laboratory of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Stanford University. An ADAGE computer system (AGT/10) with an on-line graphics terminal is being used under the sponsorship of N.I.H. project NLM 00525-1.

The design of increasingly complex VLSI circuits and multilayer printed circuit boards have increased the demands on computer aided design methods including interactive graphics systems. Earlier minicomputer based systems with direct view storage tube displays lack the processing power and display characteristics that allow high degrees of interactivity and visual discrimination required for high productivity in complex design situations. Declining semiconductor RAM costs and increasing capabilities of microprocessors have allowed raster display technology to keep pace with the demands of current interactive graphics systems.The recently introduced Lexidata Graphics System 8000 combines state of the art color and black and white raster display technology with the latest microprocessor technology to provide a powerful element for the design of interactive graphics systems to meet today's greater needs. The GS8000 includes a very fast Schottky display processor to convert vectors to raster and fill areas and a 16 bit microprocessor to service interactive devices and process a world coordinate data base for editing and display. The system hardware off loads a significant processing and memory burden from the host computer allowing the use of a less powerful host or more users on a single host. An extensive software library resident in the Graphics System 8000 reduces the software development required of the user allowing him to concentrate on the applications software necessary for the creation, maintenance and non-graphic processing of his design data base on his host computer.

This paper describes the architecture of the micro-programmed processor which is the heart of the Adage GP/400 interactive graphics system, and discusses some of the factors which influenced its design.

The Optics Project on the Web (WebTOP) is a 3D, interactive computer graphics system that visualizes optical phenomena. Its purpose is to help instructors teach and students learn about waves and optics. Originally, WebTOP was implemented using VRML, Java, and the External Authoring Interface, and required the use of the Microsoft Virtual Machine. This paper provides an introduction to a new version of WebTOP that uses X3D, Java, the Scene Access Interface, and the Sun Virtual Machine. The interface, modules, and implementation of this version are discussed.

In this paper, the integration of an automated process-planning system with an interactive computer graphics system is presented. (The current system is capable of planning hole-making processes.) This paper discusses the graphics system, the generative automated process planning system, their interface and the possibility of interfacing with a larger CAD/CAM system. An example of planning a precision machined part is also presented.

Quantification of fish school structure is difficult because of: (1) the large amount of positional data that must be recorded, (2) the fact that schools are moving, and (3) the fact that schools are threedimensional. Computer tools for addressing these problems include x,y digitizing devices interfaced to computers and interactive computer graphics systems. General computer algorithms now exist for 3-D reconstruction of schools given any two 2-D views such as photographs.

The geometric modelling system plays an important role in CAD for the mechanical engineering. This paper presents the general purposed conversational geometric modelling, HICAD which has been developed to confirm the integrated CAD. The HICAD is a generalized geometric model which includes three of the typical geometric modellings, i.e., the wire frame, surface, and solid models. Herein, the implementation method of solid model is especially discussed with the summary of whole system.

Participants were sent the following in advance:Interactive graphics systems have the potential for becoming "suitable partners" to people carrying out high order intellectual processes. This session will focus on unresolved issues that need to be considered about people and their milieu in relation to systems and their constraints. We should have an understanding of our goals and an awareness of their implications in designing interactive graphics systems. In this session we will attempt to gain insights into the relationships between designer goals/procedures and user needs/attitudes. The following question may be useful for each designer to ask: "What will be the impact of my design choice on the user in terms of "triggered", presumed, or desired state-of-being and what will be the impact on user costs in terms of time, money, emotion and psychological/physical energy?"

This paper summarizes a recent research project which brings together work from four diverse fields: (1) Time-lapse photographic documentation of unit operations such as those found on construction projects; (2) statistical reduction and analysis of data; (3) computer-based simulation modeling; and (4) theories and technologies for the design of interactive human-computer systems. The objectives are: (1) To permit convenient and economical collection of field data pertaining to construction operations; (2) to enable a user to quantify and analyze the statistical properties of the data captured on film; (3) to give the nonsophisticated user convenient and interactive access to computer-based simulation modeling to explore more productive and economical ways of doing work; and (4) to implement these systems using the best principles for designing the human-computer interface so as to take advantage of the powerful and economical minicomputer, microcomputer, and interactive graphics systems now available. The result of this research is an operable prototype which can be used in practical applications, and which provides a sound foundation for future refinements and extensions.

Balancing situativity and formality: the importance of relating a formal language to interactive graphics in logic instruction

The so-called “User’s Conceptual Model” (UCM) now occupies a place of importance in the design of the user interface of interactive (computer graphics) systems. At the computer side of the interface there has been much excellent research done on (graphical) input tools, culminating in the ideas that now form the basis for the Graphical Kernel System (GKS) Version 7.2 input functions. On the user’s side of the interface there is still much to be done. It is envisaged that models of UCMs will form the basis of an Information/Knowledge/Data Base that is accessed by a “User Interface Management System” (UIMS), an integrated collection of software tools whose function it is to enable the specification, implementation and maintenance of a user-computer interface that is “user-oriented” and (self-)adaptive. The formal specification of such UCMs is a natural prerequisite for that of the user-computer dialogue. A formalism based on Minsky’s frame theory and an extension of the Vienna Development Method (VDM) is outlined in this paper. Taking “user” to mean “application programmer”, I present examples taken from a model of a UCM of GKS Version 7.2. Canonical encodings are presented in Ada 1 and canonical semantics in Anna, a language for annotating Ada programs.