Functional Requirements and Design Features for the Implementation of 3D CAD-Based Graphical Interactive Configurators

Configuring complex computer-aided design (CAD) assemblies just by modifying parameters requires the attention and abstraction of the users. This interaction cost can be lowered significantly by graphical interactive control elements that allow for drag and drop modifications directly in the 3D assembly. Contributing techniques, such as working with skeletons and advanced or external knowledge-based parameter control, are available. This contribution examines their integration and implementation into a given CAD system through a case study on creating a pipe routing configuration system which uses drag points to adjust the position of instrumentation and routing segments. The results are then generalized to functional requirements and basic design features of such graphical interactive configurators.