[brlcad-devel] Modeling kernel

[Daniel R. <dan...@gm...>]

I want to resume the discussion on IRC (March 13) about developing an
industry user oriented geometry modeling kernel based on our geometry
engine/core interface work. We ended with searching for a distinct
name for it.

My suggestion is: BRL-CAD MOOSE: BRL-CAD Modular Object Oriented
Software Extension. Its advantage is that we already have a mascot for
it. On the other hand moose is already used in other software
products.
Any other idea is welcome.

In this GsoC Andrei added the complex primitives Sketch,
BagOfTriangles and Pipe to the C++ core interface. This library shall
become the core of the modeling kernel.

During Andrei's development some questions came up. I have to think
about them and find a solution before the new primitives can be
finished.

One of these questions is about the type of the handles for
substructures: Values or pointers. Usually I'm using value types
because they are more secure, e.g. the user doesn't have to care for
proper freeing. The drawback of the value-method is that a value can't
be of a subtype. E.g. a sketch segment can't be a line, it's always
only “segment”. I could give give the segment a method to-line() which
returns a line …

However, moving the C++ core interface to a modeling kernel with a
different name opens the possibility to make changes to basic
structures. The goal is to find the optimum for a consistent, easy (to
understand and use), and fast (in reading/traversing the database)
interface.


Regards,
    Daniel