Prod CAD

Products and Productivity for the CAD industry

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Prod CAD specializes in developing script languages for vendors of CAD products.

Graphic interface for (manual) design

Design with a computer is usually an interactive process: Drawing, moving graphic elements, making choices from menus, or setting states with radio buttons and check-boxes. However, at times this standard practice may prove tedious: for example, if a series of GUI manipulations has to be repeated dozens of times, or if a considerable body of work has to be performed again, with a small change, due to a single error.

Text interface: automation by scripts

We offer developers of CAD systems an addition to their products: A script interpreter for the functionality of their existing graphic design system. This is a text-based CAD system similar to the graphic system, which is programmable, portable, and easier to expand relative to the existing system.

Scripts: easy, effective, flexible

An interface for scripts is a highly effective resource. We believe that it doesn't have to be difficult or expensive to design with a computer, and an interface for scripts helps bridge over some of the difficult parts. We developed a flexible interface for a script language, and a process for inegrating it with existing products, thus enabling CAD developers to give their users the ability to write scripts. There are a lot of benefits for automation (by using scripts) in the design process, for the designer as well as for the developer of the design system.

Benefits of a script language for users:

• Custom reports, exports, operations... everything

  Customers are given the freedom to write specific scripts. Several examples where this freedom may be useful: To perform functions that are too specific for development by the vendor, scripts involving the user's sensitive information, rapid custom development at the user's site (which is easier and shorter than a user-vendor interaction).

• Increased productivity

  Repetitive tasks can be made into scripts, and in this manner executed quickly and precisely.

• Spreading expertise

  Procedures designed by the experts of an organization, can be packaged in scripts and shared by all the users.

• Facilitating plant-wide policies

  Plant-wide policies take long to teach and are difficult to change, when performed manually step by step. With a script language, those can be packaged in a script to be performed in a single operation. The policy is implemented in a single script which is part of the routine of every user, and every user runs it with a single button. When changes of policy are required, they are performed once in the script, without affecting the work of the users.

• Scripts are easier than programs

  Script languages are interpreted, making them easier and faster to learn. Script language interpreters are independent of a development tool, which IS required for writing programs.

Benefits for vendors incorporating a script language:

• Facilitating custom features

  Organizations have different requirements, and the vendors of CAD systems can rarely deal with all of them. Some times, even different departments may have different opinions, whether a custom feature will be included in the product or not. The script language is a key for maintaining one mainstream product with many custom implementations. By custom scripts, containing existing or specialized commands, a new feature can be delivered to selected customers. Others are not affected even if the new feature requires additions to the script language.

• Reducing dependency on the UI for stability

  (e.g. on version release) Reducing dependency on the UI makes life easier on the vendor, since changing the UI, and enlarging the number of options and menus, are usually considered a burden on both the users and vendors. Stabilizing the UI is many times a crucial step when releasing a version. On the other hand, when a feature is considered critical, it will usually make its way into the product with the price of the required UI changes. This is much simpler to do when the feature is provided in an addition to the script language and UI changes are not required. The release of new and critical features becomes faster and more robust.

• Additional revenue from custom scripts

  Users which don't have technical expertise may order custom scripts from the vendor. This may prove a short task which provides a high profit margin for the vendor.

• Interfacing Outwards

  The script language may be used as a simple and robust bridge to export the functionality of the design system, for integration with other systems. Some times such cooperations are beneficial, and the required functionality exists in the system, but the software interfaces to access it are poor or non-existant.

• Interfacing Inwards

  The script language may be used to import additional functionality into the design system. When the integration of additional functionality by another department or a different vendor is useful, the script language may facilitate this integration.

• Improved system design

  It is often the case that the development of a design system results in histories of many years, developers, platforms, and tools. These are many times reflected in the source code, and involve problems which have burdened the development of the system for a long time. Adding a script language interface usually requires long thought about what the system enables and how, resulting in a more standard, stable, and mature software interface for the functionality of the system, even if it is imposed only on future features.