'The Graphical Google for Engineers'

By DE Editors

Applied Search Technology Ltd. (Birmingham, UK) announced that CADFind Sketch & Search, which can find 2Dand 3D engineering drawings from a sketch and 3D CAD solid modelingenvironments, has been released in a version that allows users to build customapplications to meet their own special business and engineeringrequirements.

The CADFindretrieval process is so simple that a company's wealth of past designs,including those only held in 2D formats, can be checked as a normal part of theway that the designer creates or modifies parts in their 3D CAD system. Inaddition, companies could save thousands of pounds in part design by allowingthe user to search, retrieve and use geometrically similar parts from theirdatabase, based on a customer drawing, simple sketch, and 3Dmodels.

However,the most innovative element of the new program is the facility, which allows theuser to incorporate CADFind’s searching and database capabilities in their ownstand-alone or web applications. This new application-programming interface(API) is unique to CADFind, says the release, and is not available in otherstandard commercial packages – domestically orinternationally.

An exampleof the use of this API technology can be seen in a research website developedwith Aston University (Birmingham, UK) toexplore the way designers use graphical search systems — it allows users tosearch an online database using a CAD sketch or 3D model.

You candownload a workable demonstration program of CADFind from Applied Search Technology Ltd.

Sources:Press materials received from the company and additional information gleanedfrom the company's website.