When it comes to frameworks, the familiar story of the elephant and the six blind philosophers seems to apply. As each philoso pher encountered a separate part of the elephant, each pronounced his considered, but flawed judgement. One blind philosopher felt a leg and thought it a tree. Another felt the tail and thought he held a rope. Another felt the elephant's flank and thought he stood before a wall. We're supposed to learn about snap judgements from this alle gory, but its author might well have been describing design automation frameworks. For in the reality of today's product development requirements, a framework must be many things to many people. xiv CAD Frameworks: Integration Technology for CAD As the authors of this book note, framework design is an optimi zation problem. Somehow, it has to be both a superior rope for one and a tremendous tree for another. Somehow it needs to provide a standard environment for exploiting the full potential of computer-aided engineering tools. And, somehow, it has to make real such abstractions as interoperability and interchangeability. For years, we've talked about a framework as something that provides application-oriented services, just as an operating system provides system-level support. And for years, that simple statement has hid the tremendous complexity of actually providing those services.

Klappentext

The term CAD Framework has come to mean all of the underlying facilities provided to the CAD tool developer, the CAD system integrator and the end user (IC or system designer) which are necessary to facilitate their tasks. Broadly speaking, these three groups of people represent the users of the CAD Framework, each with their own needs and particular emphasis. Electronic CAD Frameworks presents a general discussion of the major components of a CAD Framework and their relationships to one another. Each area is then presented in more detail. A brief review of the state-of-the-art and current directions for research is presented. Since the approach taken to the development and enhancement of CAD frameworks has had more impact on their success or failure than any particular design decision, some observations on this topic are included in Chapter 9: Implementing a CAD Framework. Finally, the influence of related disciplines and the ongoing software standards efforts on the area of CAD environments is reviewed.

Inhalt
1: Introdution.- 1.1 The Nature of a CAD Framework.- 1.2 The Evolution of CAD Frameworks.- 1.3 CAD Frameworks and Openness.- 1.4 The Rise of Commercial CAD Frameworks.- 1.5 The Impact of Object-Oriented Techniques.- 1.6 The Standardization of CAD Frameworks.- 1.7 Organization of the Book.- 2: Major Components of an Engineering Framework.- 2.1 Overview.- 2.2 Operating System Services.- 2.3 Tool Integration and Encapsulation.- 2.4 Design Management.- 3: Data Representation.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Databases and Data Structures.- 3.3 Approaches to CAD Databases.- 3.4 Representational Issues.- 3.5 The Nature of Engineering Design Information.- 3.6 Hierarchy.- 4: Data Management.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Conventional Database Approaches.- 4.3 Physical Versus Logical Data Management.- 4.4 Managing the History of a Design.- 4.5 Managing Multiple Users of the Data.- 4.6 Concurrency Control.- 4.7 Compatibility with Change.- 5: Tool Management.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Tool Characterization.- 5.3 Tool Control.- 5.4 Other Tool Management Functions.- 6: Design Flow Management.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Benefits.- 6.3 DFM Dependencies.- 6.4 Existing Approaches.- 6.5 Describing the Design Flow.- 6.6 The Design Flow Engine.- 6.7 Standardization and Design Flow Management.- 7: User Interfaces.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 History of Design Automation User Interface Systems.- 7.3 Modern Framework User Interfaces.- 7.4 Future Directions for CAD User Interfaces.- 8: Extension Languages.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Commercial Extension Languages in CAD.- 8.3 Extension Languages Prototypes.- 8.4 Extension Languages Requirements.- 8.5 Design Issues for Extension Languages.- 8.6 General Applications of Extension Languages.- 8.7 Language-Based Design.- 8.8 Benefits of an Extension Language.- 8.9 Future Directions.- 9: Implementing a CAD Framework.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 The CODEM Approach.- 9.3 Commercial Frameworks.- 10: The CAD Framework Initiative.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The Origins of CFI.- 10.3 Goals and Deliverables.- 10.4 The CFI Organization.- 10.5 Tangible and Intangible Benefits.- 10.6 Technical Activities.- 10.7 CFI in the Future.- 11: Summary.- 11.1 Acknowledgments.- References.