The Specifier is an MCAD tool for specifying structural-assemblies.
A structural-assembly is specified in terms of it's component parts and construction processes for connecting these parts. These processes can be implemented in an associated production facility called a Unit-construction-hub, also specified using The Specifier.
Efficient control
Curves rendered on a hex-grid using integral ratio identifiers.
The Specifier uses a hexagonal-grid as a basis for spatial representation.
This simplifies the specification of 3D objects and their spatial associations.
Existing tools do not use a grid for spatial representation.
This makes the specification of curves and 3D surfaces complicated.
The Specifier is designed for efficient control over curve and surface specification.
Development roadmap
- Current status
We are in the process of creating a first prototype. This prototype will demonstrate the specification process for a bicycle-wheel and then a bicycle-stabilizer structural assembly. - Plans
- Create specifications for past land-vehicle design modifications using the tool.
- Create distributable apps for MacOS, Windows and Linux.
- Create a version of the app for an iPhone-based laptop platform.
Design approach
In addition to its use of a hex-grid, and a targeted usage domain, The Specifier's design approach has the following aspects.
Use-centric design The Specifier is being designed in sync with the design of a bicycle-stabiliser. The design approach is not to design everything up-front for the most general design scenario, but instead design for a specific use-case, then redesign for more use-cases, then identify those tool aspects that are common across use-cases and add them to a more general-purpose tool. We refer to this as use-centric design.
Simplicity The Specifier uses a simpler UI-design paradigm (InterUnit-UI) than the commonly used WIMP paradigm. InterUnit-UI is Khitchdee Design's new UI-design paradigm that has far better ergonomics than WIMP.
Most existing tools have poor usage-ergonomics. They are all apps running inside WIMP-based UI frameworks (native or browser-based). They tend to be feature heavy, require a lot of fine-grained mouse usage and switching between mouse and keyboard use, and hence require the designer to be attentive to the app's UI to a large degree. Shapr3D is a recent tool that targets better usage-ergonomics.
Some ergonomic modelling Includes some ergonomic modeling of the user of the design. This is a neccesary part of the specification of any structural-assembly that will be used by a human user. It also helps in the description of a construction process.
Hardware friendly
The Specifier includes a specially designed hex-grid graphics library.
This library does not rely on 3D hardware acceleration,
and is implemented, instead, using a platform's native 2D drawing library.
It is also designed with a minimal feature-set and resource usage approach.
These implementation choices significantly lower computational complexity,
and The Specifier will be very responsive on average PC hardware as a native app.
All existing tools have high implementation complexity and are either implemented as native apps,
requiring workstation class processors,
or cloud-based apps, implying browser and internet-bandwidth constraints.
Licensing
Khitchdee Design (
) plans to license The Specifier to industrial-designers and prototype developers.
We also plan to license the Specifier's hex-grid based geometry modeller to other CAD tool developers.
Existing MCAD tools
The following is a review of MCAD tools commonly used by small and medium scale enterprises.
MCAD tools represent solid objects using parametric descriptions created using a "geometry-modeler".
To visualise these solid objects on a 2D screen, they are represented by their 3D boundary surfaces (BREP).
The ISO has standardised a format for BREPs and all tools support this format for interchange.
For most industrial design projects, a 3D surface does not need to be edited directly.
Common shapes are used and ther properties are controlled using the app.
Sometimes, as in the case of specialised exterior sheet-metal design for an automobile,
specialised tools are used to directly specify 3D surfaces.
In addition head-mounted-displays, which offer a full 3D viewing experience are used for visualisation.
Motion sensing sensors can be used to input shapes using hand movements.
Hand-gesture based 3D surface input is a new direction that tools are starting to explore.
Direct 3D surface design is still a process with a learning curve and its use is not very prevalent.
Clay models continue to be used to create 3D surface designs, such as for automobile design.
From a designer's standpoint, MCAD tools are characterised by their geometry kernel.
Examples of geometry kernels, currently in use, are Parasolid (Siemens), 3D ACIS Modeller (Spatial), ShapeManager (Autodesk), Granite (PTC), Convergence Geometric Modeller (Dassault), openNURBS (Rhino3D) and C3D (C3DLabs).
The most commonly used tool
Cloud-based collaboration enabled tools
Established alternative tools
Newer niche tools
