Bricsys LGS update advances parametrics in both 2D and 3D
The takeaway
The team of Russian developers Bricsys acquired in 2011 keeps cranking out incredible software. Bricsys owns a powerful constraint solving technology now available to other software developers.
The details
CAD developer Bricsys says version 9 of its LGS component technology makes a “significant breakthrough” in constraint solving techniques. Constraints are geometric design intentions that must be maintained even as other elements of a part or assembly change.
LGS provides constraint-driven parametric design and optimization technology to engineering software. (Source: Bricsys)
LGS 2D and 3D variational constraint solvers are computational engines software developers can add to engineering software to implement advanced parametric functions. Users of these applications can rely on geometric and dimensional constraints, which are solved simultaneously forcing the change of geometry according to design intent. Customers can use LGS in their software design, even if they are not building on top of the BricsCAD application portfolio.
Specifically, LGS 2D 9.0 provides better diagnostics for geometric objects and constraints. It also contains a new method of solving coincidence constraint between two lines. LGS 3D 9.0 allows users to edit 3D sheet metal models smoothly and efficiently. It also implements special methods to minimize the number of transformed geometries, when possible. With LGS 3D 9.0 it is possible to control the distance between the closest points of two circles lying on parallel planes.
This is the third release of this mature software since the acquisition of intellectual property rights from LEDAS in 2011. Both LGS 2D and LGS 3D libraries were integrated in BricsCAD V12 to support parametric drawing and variational direct modeling. Later the areas of application of LGS were extended to assembly design in BricsCAD V13, and sheet metal design in BricsCAD V14.
LGS technology is available for licensing to all software developers, whether or not they develop on the BricsCAD platform. ““Sometimes our licensees use LGS technology more extensively than we do in BricsCAD,” says Erik De Keyser, Bricsys CEO. An example is CEAD, developed by CADVision Engineers for constraint-driven engineering design synthesis.
LGS 2D and 3D are available as binary libraries for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. Bricsys says the C Application Programming Interface allows easy integration of LGS 2D/3D into applications written in C/C++/C#/Java and other programming languages.