Solid Kernel

Think of ClassCAD as an object system that manages the results of calls to the Solid Kernel. ClassCAD is built on SMLib, a NURBS-based kernel developed by Solid Modeling Solutions, a company that was acquired by Nvidia several years ago. We have been working with this kernel for over 20 years. The kernel supports non-manifold BREP modeling and provides tesselation functionality for visualisation in a client. We currently use only a fraction of the overall functionality and plan to provide other APIs for surface modelling or polygonal modelling in the future.

A bit of history: ClassCAD was initially implemented using ObjectARX as an extension for AutoCAD. Later, we transitioned to the ACIS kernel to develop our own standalone CAD. However, due to business model challenges with Spatial, we eventually switched to SMLib. Before making this decision, we explored alternative solutions, including a prototype implementation with Open Cascade in 2003.