INTEGRATION THROUGH TRANSLATION: THE CAD/CAM PILOT PROBE AT XEROX.

Xerox could not find an integrated turnkey CAD/CAM system that met their needs. As a result, they bought divergent hardware and software and undertook the integration themselves, writing their own software 'translators. ' The user must be allowed to pass the design geometry data base on to 3-D modeling, drafting, analysis, and manufacturing, with relative transparency and without loss of precision in the geometry. If a change in the geometry is made in one of the applications (e. g. analysis), the updated geometry should be made to the other applications (e. g. drafting) either automatically or with relative ease by the user. The Xerox CAD Pilot project has proven the technical feasibility of integrating CAD and CAM.