PHIGS: a graphics platform for CAD application development

To display, modify and interact with the graphical data held for a CAD application, it is necessary to have some sort of graphics platform. The Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System (PHIGS) is a graphics system currently being developed through the ISO standards process. Some aspects of PHIGS are discussed in this paper, insofar as its functionality relates to common needs in CAD. PHIGS is a flexible device-independent standard that should prove useful in the development of CAD applications.