CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
12 July 2004
Product News
D-Cubed-Latest Release of the HLM, Version 31.0
D-Cubed announced the latest release of its Hidden Line Manager (HLM), the precise hidden line technology. The new enhancements include:
• Applications can now specify that geometry should never be hidden by other faces or parts. This enables applications to add annotation geometry to the HLM model and determine precisely how it is displayed. The model below, for example, consists of three elements: a cylinder, a block and a wire edge that represents the projected cylinder axis. This particular annotation of the cylinder axis is achieved by specifying that the wire edge should not be hidden by the cylinder.
• The new functionality joins a suite of tools-including model outline detection and intersection curve visualization that makes the HLM an ideal solution for technical illustration applications.
• In certain circumstances, applications may have prior knowledge about the visibility status of some of the faces in a model. For instance, an inaccurate hidden line technology used for fast visualization on large models, such as a z-buffering technique, can determine that some faces are not visible in a particular view. It is now possible for an application to provide such information to the HLM in order to accelerate the calculation of an accurate hidden line view of the entire model.
• For each part in an assembly, applications can specify a box that completely encloses the part. The HLM uses such boxes to reduce the time taken to compute the hidden line view. Generally, the more closely the box matches the part, the better the possible performance gain. In previous releases, only axis-aligned boxes were permitted. It is now possible to specify an axis-aligned box that has been transformed to enclose a part more precisely.
The HLM, first released in 1999, is one of the most widely deployed hidden line solutions in the CAD field. Its kernel independence enables a dedicated team of experts to focus exclusively and continuously on the development of advanced hidden line algorithms without being distracted by the wider requirements of a general solid modeling technology.
D-Cubed is a part of the PLM Components division of UGS. They develop software components and provide technical consulting services to the CAD/CAM/CAE application development industry in all areas of geometric, solid and variational/parametric modeling.
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