Critique: Computer-Aided Mechanical Assembly Design Using
Configuration Spaces
Joskowicz, Sacks
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At first I wondered if there was going to be some interesting use of
the blocked space, where parts overlapped, or would occupy the same
space. After the authors point it out, it was obvious this could be
used to limit the configuration search space. When the fact that much
of the work done is parametric design it is a wonder I didn't think
of blocked space as a way to eliminate possible parameter values
before the kindly authors state the fact.
One of the limitations of the system is the reliance on mechanisms
being planar assemblies. That is, it does not handle curved surfaces.
They mention the utility of this when identifying contact points.
One possible solution would be to model curved surfaces as many, very
small flat surfaces. Of course computing technology would have to be
adequate at doing this in a reasonable time. Considering the
improvements made over the last four years in real time graphic
rendering it seems possible to consider even today.
For the first eleven pages I was unsure what was meant by dynamical
simulation. I was surprised that is wasn't explained earlier since it
is mentioned often. I was very impressed by the graphical output
of the system. Maybe I had become used to the quality of the graphics
prevalent before the 1990's. This is certainly easier to look at
than plain text traces of code execution.
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Leo Joskowicz & Elisha Sacks,
Computer-Aided Mechanical Assembly Design Using Configuration Spaces.
Technical Report 97-001, Computer Science Department,
January 1997, submitted.
http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~josko/cad.html
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