2/04/2011

The First Ever Full History and Overview of Solid Modeling Kernels

By a coincidence Dmitry Ushakov published his overview (in Russian) just when a week ago he became the LEDAS CEO. On the other hand, it's already for many years that Dmitry explains such and other geometry stuff in his university lectures reflected in his book "Introduction to Mathematical Background of CAD".

Well, maybe the overview is not the first ever or it is not formally full but it is definitely extensive and written in a very clear language - even with some artistic flavor. For example to illustrate the value of ACIS, Dmitry includes a picture "Acis and Galatea" by Johann Heinrich Tischbein der Ältere (1722 - 1789) while CATIA Geometric Modeler (CGM) is associated with the French Guard Horse Artillery of the beginning of 19th century.

The paper gives a professional explanation of what a solid modeling kernel is, thoroughly describes the history of subsequent appearance of all main kernels, and then gives some comments on their comparison and the wars between them. The table is finally given to integrate some key data.

Dmitry's paper was in particular inspired by concerns and hot discussions about the future of SolidWorks - with respect to its transition from Parasolid to CGM. Such discussions - at least in the Russian market - are not always based on clear knowledge of the domain. That's why the paper is very intensively visited and discussed at the isicad web portal. As for the change of SW kernel, Dmitry knows the subject and he is optimistic.

The paper in question is in Russian but the Google translation might be sufficient at least to catch the key points. In the long run, you may look at the table-of-all-kernels and at the pictures. However, a non-automatic translation into English in not excluded in the future.

PS. Note that the Russian word yadro used in Dmitry's paper is homonymous in the Russian language and along with kernel means also nucleous, canon ball, core, and more. In his paper, Dmitry somewhat plays with this ambiguity...


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