Abstract

We report on the development of a two-dimensional geometric constraint solver. The solver is a major component of a new generation of CAD systems that we are developing based on a high-level geometry representation. The solver uses a graph-reduction directed algebraic approach, and achieves interactive speed. We describe the architecture of the solver and its basic capabilities. Then, we discuss in detail how to extend the scope of the solver, with special emphasis placed on the theoretical and human factors involved in finding a solution --- in an exponentially large search space --- so that the solution is appropriate to the application and the way of finding it is intuitive to an untrained user. 1 Introduction Solving a system of geometric constraints is a problem that has been considered by several communities, and using different approaches. For example, the symbolic computation community has considered the general problem, in the Supported in part by ONR contract N00014-90-J-...

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