“A solid modeling system, often called a solid modeler, is a “Solid modeling refers to theories and computations that computer program that provides facilities for storing and define and manipulate representations of physical objects, manipulating data structures that represent the geometry of † OUR PASSION ¢ of their properties, and of the associated abstractions, and individual objects or assemblies. ...The choice of ∂ that support a variety of processes. The representations representations used by the modeler determines its domain and computations used in solid modeling are based on (i.e., which objects can be modeled), and has a strong impact BRL-CAD’s open source sound mathematical and physical principles, innovative on the complexity and performance of the algorithms that development is persistently and and compact data structures, and efficient and reliable create or process the representations. A modeler may algorithms. They support the creation, exchange, support several distinct representation schemes. Consistency passionately obsessed with visualization, animation, interrogation, and annotation of between representations in different schemes is typically implementing a robust, powerful, the digital models of the objects and their evolution.” enforced by representation conversion algorithms.” – Dr. Jarek Rossignac flexible, and comprehensive solid – The Solid Modeling Association modeling system that provides Modeling Interface Enhancements faithful high-performance geometric Geometry Services representation, efficient and Users want something easy to learn, easy to use, and BRL-CAD’s libraries have proven exceptionally flexibly feature-filled so they can get their job done. intuitive geometry editing, effective at providing robust geometry services that BRL-CAD aspires to be that one place people go to conversion support for all common are leveraged by numerous external application for geometry needs with an interface users enjoy solid geometry formats, and codes. Enhancing core geometry service functionality exploring and one that keeps people coming back. geometric analysis tools for 3D cascades a wealth of usability, flexibility, and feature capacities including the ability to provide multiuser Prior to being open source, BRL-CAD’s modeling computer-aided design (CAD). access controls, comprehensive revision history, interface was considered “expert-friendly” and relied collaborative enhanced multiuser modeling, and more upon in-house expertise and training for proficiency. flexible application development. With an international audience, more varied needs, and more casual use, BRL-CAD’s modeling Graphical user interface and usability enhancements BRL-CAD’s existing geometry kernel functionality interface needs to evolve. will be refactored into a comprehensive scriptable Hybrid boundary representation geometry support command framework with a new object-oriented Geometry Representation Support geometry kernel programming API and provide a Multiuser version-controlled geometry services At the heart of all solid modeling systems are lightweight network daemon protocol for agnostic fundamental geometric representations and data Open source awareness & increased development client application development. structures. BRL-CAD started with an efficient Primary long-term Aspirations constructive solid geometry (CSG) mathematical Open Source foundation using implicit geometry. Support was later expanded to include explicit geometry but more BRL-CAD is a powerful cross-platform open BRL-CAD is a mature software code in production work is required to make hybrid support pervasive. source solid modeling system that includes use for real CAD, solid modeling, and analysis interactive solid geometry editing, ray-tracing purposes. It has been under active development since support for rendering and geometric analysis, BRL-CAD must robustly, efficiently, and faithfully 1979 but has only been available as open source support all 3D CAD models regardless of using an network-distributed visualization support, image and signal-processing tools, path-tracing for software since December 2004. The conversion from implicit or explicit geometric representation realistic image synthesis, a performance analysis a proprietary code controlled by the U.S. government becoming more and more of a hybrid modeling b e n c h m a r k s u i t e , a n e m b e d d e d s c r i p t i n g to an open source project made several hundred system. Geometry formats of particular focus interface, and a robust high-performance person-years of development effort available to an include volumetric models, spline-surface (e.g., geometric representation and analysis library. international developer community overnight. NURBS) and polygonal (e.g., triangle mesh) boundary representations (BREP), and implicit BRL-CAD Forever firmly emplaced as open source software, primitives. Having fully hybridized geometry ∑ BRL-CAD development continues to accelerate supports vast enhancements to the user interface, Solid Modeling for a Strong Defense through increased awareness and developer faithful geometry conversions, and a more flexible HTTP://BRLCAD.ORG participation by establishing strong community ties editing interface. and openly welcoming new developers.