AWV Informatik AG

AWV Informatik AG is a subsidiary of Interstate University of Applied Sciences of Technology Buchs NTB, Zurich, Switzerland. AWV is an innovation company, concentrated on CAD software research and development. The main project of AWV is ClassCAD, an integrated environment for CAD applications.

AVW Informatik AG company has successfully incorporated LEDAS LGS 2D and LGS 3D geometric solvers into its ClassCAD product. ClassCAD is not a typical CAD system, rather it works as integrated environment to build end-user applications. ClassCAD provides object-oriented environment for parts and assemblies modeling. It includes an integrated programming language for tasks automation within a CAD application, standalone version with visualization based on the VTK toolkit, and 3D operation based in a 3D solid kernel. ClassCAD models can be converted into feature models of other CAD systems and loaded with the plug-in version into other CAD systems. Similarly, scanning a feature model of a high-end CAD system and converting it into a ClassCAD base model is also possible.

Press release about licensing of LGS 2D and 3D

AWV Informatik and LEDAS Enter into Research and Development Agreement

LEDAS expertise enriches AWV Informatik’s innovative ClassCAD platform

St. Gallen, Switzerland and Novosibirsk, Russia: October 23, 2014 – AWV Informatik, developer of the ClassCAD platform and interoperability solutions for feature-based translations, and LEDAS, the leading provider of CAD/CAM research and development services, today announced the signing of a services and consulting agreement. This long-term agreement relates to research and development of several AWV projects by LEDAS, as detailed below.

The two companies have a long and successful story of partnership going back to 2007, when AWV licensed the LGS geometric constraint solver developed by LEDAS. LGS was integrated into ClassCAD, a CAD platform used by several European industrial enterprises. The flow of feature requests from the ClassCAD team was a major driver in the further development of LGS and improvement in its capabilities.

ClassCAD is not a typical CAD system; rather, it works as integrated platform to build end-user applications. ClassCAD provides an object-oriented environment for modeling 3D parts and assemblies. It includes a programming language for task automation within CAD applications. A standalone version with visualization (based on the VTK toolkit) is also available. The client-server version of ClassCAD runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform with WebGL viewing in browsers. ClassCAD converts models from other CAD systems to its native format, and can export its models to other systems, preserving the feature history.

Development Plans

The first project to be developed under the new services and consulting agreement is high-performance, GPU-based tessellation of arbitrary surfaces, including NURBS. LEDAS began development of this project for AWV in mid-September on the basis of an older prototype, which did not produce stable results of appropriate quality. The expertise of the LEDAS team in this area is the key factor for the success of this project. The team obtained its expertise from working on numerous geometric modeling projects, including the recent development of LEDAS’ own Geometry Comparison technology that was integrated with the C3D geometric kernel from C3D Labs. “We have identified three to four projects for development by LEDAS,“ said Rainer Weigel, chief executive officer of AWV Informatik. “In addition to this initial GPU-based NURBS tessellation project, we see good opportunities in the development of custom industrial software on the basis of constraint propagation methods. Other projects involve advanced CAD interoperability solutions that preserve all the features and parameters during translation between CAD systems. I feel that the academic background and technical experience of both AWV Informatik and LEDAS forms a good base for a successful joint venture.”

“High quality tessellation is a really important feature for contemporary CAD systems, because it visually appealing to users,” said Alexey Ershov, chief executive officer of LEDAS. “We are eager to develop a state-of-the-art tessellation solution for AWV. We will be using our experience in geometric modeling and parallel CPU/GPU computations as a first step in this cooperation agreement. All of the projects under consideration are very innovative, high-tech solutions that require excellent algorithmic skills – ones that we at LEDAS are proud of.”

Press release about AWV Informatik and LEDAS Development Agreement

awv-informatik.ch