Constraint System for AutoCAD
IMSI/Design is shipping the first variational sketching plug-in for AutoCAD 2007/8.
IDX Variable Constraint System (US$499) lets you apply geometric and dimensional constraints to control relationships between objects. They can be driven parametrically and include values, variables, and mathematical formulas.
Demo version at www.IDX-design.com.
The "constraint-based sketcher" that Evan refers to may have been The Woodbourne Design Companion. It was a 3rd-party product circa AutoCAD r11 or so developed by someone named Buzz Kross.
Woodbourne later developed a 3D version, which they never marketed because they were bought out by Autodesk. The 3D version became Mechanical Desktop, and Buzz is now vp of the Autodesk Manufacturing division.
All of this helps to explain why Inventor comes from Tualatin, Oregon and not from Autodesk head office in California.
Posted by: Bill Fane | Jun 09, 2008 at 22:00
Thanks to M. Stasiak for refreshing my memory.
ICEMetrix was really cool. It worked with any multi view DWG file. Simple window select the view to edit and it would create relationships on the fly between related entities. When edits were performed it would update each view. Very slick.
The real beauty was that it added nothing to the file that would prevent it from working in vanilla AutoCAD.
I suppose when PTC bought ICEM, this code was archived. I wonder if IMSI got their hands on it.
Posted by: John | Jun 09, 2008 at 07:37
There was also an application called ICEMetrix (by ICEM) in the beginning of the 90's. A really good system that absolutely not a single AutoCAD user in the Nordics (or elsewhere) understood the greatness about or even what it was for (or why?) back then. This was way before Autodesk went 3D with AutoCAD Designer...
Posted by: M. Stasiak | Jun 08, 2008 at 07:27
Well that explains the stratgic leaking of the AutoCAD 2009 based geometric consraint functionality that's in pre-release testing right now, along with these two undocumented AutoCAD 2009 system variables:
CONSTRAINTRELAX
CONSTRAINTSOLVEMODE
Posted by: Tony Tanzillo | Jun 06, 2008 at 13:20
Autodesk showed a constraint-based sketcher integrated into AutoCAD quite a long time ago. I think it may have been as a long ago as 1989.
Of course, they never shipped it.
Posted by: Evan Yares | Jun 06, 2008 at 11:23