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4. RELATION TO WORK DONE ELSEWHERE.
The work proposed here has been strongly influenced by the
pioneering computer graphics work of Larry Roberts, Steven Coons and
Ivan Sutherland done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Lincoln Laboratory, and Harvard University; as well as the more
recent work of Sutherland, Evans, Warnock, Watkins, Archuleta and
Gouraud at the University of Utah. In fact, Mr. Baumgart did his
undergraduate thesis (at Harvard, 1968) with Prof. Sutherland, on
development of a three dimensional display system which was
subsequently moved to Utah. Another influence on the proposed work
has been the research in Artificial Intelligence, computer vision,
programming languages and time sharing done at Stanford University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford Research
Institute.
In general, research work similar to this proposal goes on
at the University of Utah and and at IBM; also the development and
application of three dimensional computer design systems has been
underway for several years at companies such as General Motors and
Lockheed. However, recent research work at Utah has been mainly
directed toward the development of special purpose high quality
display hardware, whereas the work outlined in this proposal is
directed toward the problem of 3D representation and graphics
language. Accordingly, the relation of our work to that done at the
University of Utah, is the relation between hardare and software,
the two matters are overlapping but different. The relation of our
work to graphics in industry is symbiotic and is in fact accurately
described by the hackneyed comparisons of a university with a
corporation: theory vs. practice, knowledge vs. production,
generality vs. practicality; not too surprising the General Motors
and the Lockheed systems have produced mechanical drawings of cars
and airplanes; however somewhat irritating these systems have not
produced new languages or algorithms; with the exception of Appel's
hidden line eliminator developed at IBM, Yorktown, the graphics
software technology used by industry began in university and
government research.
Another area of related work is 2D mechanical drawing using
a computer. At present, there are several commercially available
automatic drafting systems (Cal Comp, Gerber, and so on) which
allow a mechanical drawing to be entered into a computer and edited;
word for word and line for line. Such systems are indeed an advance
over manual drafting, however the research work we are proposing
would be a further advance directed to producing many 2D mechanical
drawings from the human design effort required to make one 3D
drawing.
Finally, there are many commercially available engineering
programs that generate mechanical drawings for particular
applications. For example, the Control Data Corporation, has a
system that does structural steel detailing and that produces
graphics in accord with the drawing standards of the American Steel
Association. Such special purpose drawing programs require input
decks specifying the exact shape, dimensions and location of each
steel beam; the input decks are prepared off line, largely by hand.
A three dimensional design program, such as the one we propose
creating, would allow interactive design and specification of a
steel structures and would allow easy interfacing (in effect,
FORMAT statements) for creating particular data required by an
existing program. So the relation of a 3D design program to a 3D
drafting program is simply sequential, the one would generate the
input of the other.