The LEDAS Company announces its new project, for the moment called the LEDAS Geometric Graphics (LGG), aimed at application of the LEDAS geometric constraint solving technology beyond the CAD/CAM/CAE/PLM scope. In the framework of common two-dimensional vector graphics (which includes shapes, texts, and embedded raster graphics) old-fashioned methods like aligning, adjusting, etc., are still used. At the same time, much more powerful methods based on geometric constraints have been approved in CAD domain to work with sketches and assemblies.
The challenge to apply geometric constraint-based approach to the vector graphics domain is very high motivating. LEDAS has started this project, having in hands the underlying technology for geometric constraint solving and the dedicated industrial product, the LEDAS Geometric Solver (LGS, http://lgs.ledas.com/), licensed by several CAD makers. We are going to bring this technology to users of traditional systems of vector graphics. The LGG project should provide efficient means of dealing with geometric notions and constraints to support easy creation and modification of graphical entities and to express their relationships.
The efforts in this direction primarily aim at creation of a new concept of graphical user interface that allows the user of such applications like CorelDraw to deal with constraints over graphical entities, including their creation and modification (both implicitly and explicitly). A prototype will be built to evaluate this new concept in combination with the underlying technology of efficient geometric constraint solving and a number of various end user paradigms. Some other R&D results and experiences of LEDAS, like the Physical Simulation project, will also be involved into the LGG development. We are going to present the LGG results at the Graphicon-2005 conference (graphicon.ru) that will take place in Novosibirsk, Russia, in June 2005.