BROKER-AGENT ARCHITECTURE FOR CAD SYSTEMS

First the definitions of openness and efficiency for CAD systems are giv-en as the goals of modeling. Then several kinds of models existed for CAD systemsare taken into consideration: data-centered model, executive-centered model andobject-oriented model. The advantages and disadvantages of these models are out-lined respectively according to openness and efficiency. Based on the object-orientedmodel, which has been broadly used by now, Broker is introduced to abate theoverall communication cost and the complexity of communication for each object,and Agent is put forth to isolate objects from communication. Now Broker-Agentarchitecture comes into being, and then the details of the functions of Broker andAgent in this architecture are further discussed. After that, the effect of Broker-A-gent architecture on extensibility of the whole system structure is also given- Final-ly, some practical issues of its application are introduced. Broker-Agent architec-ture for CAD systems is proved to be a solid base for the lmplementation of moreopen and efficient CAD systems.