Delcam and Parasolid.

[TimLim]

Hi there, another Off Topic musing. Does anyone here know about what modelling kernel Delcam used in the past? Back in the days when high-end CAD packages only worked on Unix workstations, Delcam boasted that they were the CAD provider to beat. Being able to model complex shapes etc. Today we know they use Parasolid. Did they use anything else?

[JohnRBaker]

It could have been the ACIS kernel as that was really the only other viable one at that time, if they used a kernel at all.  Remember, until the idea of kernels came along, people had to develop their own geometry engines whatever it was.  The idea of a CAD neutral modeling kernel caused a lot of people to reexamine that practice and to eventually license something like that so that they could concentrate their people on what they could do best, add value based their expertise and not have to also become topology and solid modeling experts.

[TimLim]

Thank you John. I have not been following Delcam for quite awhile. A short visit to their site indicated that they started with a program called DUCT. I do not know if that product had a it's own geometry engine. I remembered many years ago, at a trade show, I presented a sheetmetal problem and Delcam had just started with a GUI. I guess it was not bug proof because the demonstrator switched to the command prompt and completed the task using typed commands throughout. I am also surprised that Delcam had only recently been acquired by Autodesk. With this acquisition, Autodesk now have a formidable CAM application in its portfolio.