Investigation And Development Of Wizard Model For CAD/CAM Software System

The development of CAD/CAM software is an important scheme in CAD/CAM research. It is a common approach to develop CAD/CAM software to match to specific requirements of enterprises and research departments. The program of CAD/CAM software is usual in a fixed framework whether in initial or secondary development. Therefore, Wizard method can be used to realize and customize part of codes so as to reduce the deveploper's workloads and enhance the efficience of the development.This paper presents the idea, methodology and application of application wizard. The idea of wizard is first illustrated in term of software engineering, then a structure of wizard program is presented, and process is given to develop an application wizard under VisualC++ environment in the end. The principal work of the paper is as follows:1. Basic ideas of rapid application development (RAD) and software factory are surveyed; the relationships are made clear among RAD, software factory and Wizard technology via confirming the instantiation of software factory to RAD and Wizard to software factory.2. An abstract model of general Wizard is analyzed and put forward and a general procedure is designed to develop Wizard for CAD/CAM software.3. The program structure is anatomized for the Custom Wizard in VC++ and a sample to develop Wizard is presented in detail under VC++ environment.4. Wizard structures are analyzed and Wizard programs are developed according to the properties of the AutoCAD, Pre/Engineer, Solidworks and MapX.