RP Software System Development Based On Component Technique

Rapid Prototyping technology (RP) is a kind of prototype producing technology, it means that under the control and management of computer, and based on the CAD model of the prototype or part, produces it through the manner that accumulates the material exactly. RP software system is a part of RP which starts with the CAD software system and ends in numerical control software system. In order to solve the problem that RP software system at present contains too less functions, inefficient in developing and difficult to reuse, we research and develop the component based-RP software system in this thesis.Firstly, we introduce the conception, sorts and advantages of component technology. Then we analyze three kinds of component model which are in common used: COM/DCOM/COM+ model, CORBA model and EJB model. We also introduce the conception of Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) and its developing flow.Secondly, we give a detailed requirement to the RP software system. In system designing, we take component technique into use in the system developing, and divide the whole system into three subsystems. They contain five component modules as follows: STL model browsing and editing module, STL model repairing module, VRML model browsing and editing module, slicing module and contour data processing module. We design and develop these modules into components. As to the interfaces, we introduce and analyze three kinds of format files: STL format file, VRML format file and CLI format file, which work as interface data files. We also discuss in detail about the framework of the RP software system.Finally, based on the study and research above, we develop the component based-RP software system with the tools Visual C++ and OpenGL. After integrating testing, we come up with the running result of the system. Practice proves that this component based-RP software system reaches ideal performance and good developing efficiency. What's more, through the uniform interfaces in the system, we enhance largely the expansibility and maintainability of the system. Meanwhile, all the component modules can not only be used to compose the whole system, but also be put into component library, which is used for further development later.