Collaborative Research: FMitF: Track I: End-usser Programming for CAD Systems via Language Design and Synthesis

计算机辅助设计（CAD）在现代工程中起着至关重要的作用。虽然CAD工具可以快速创建模型，但在创建新设计时重用这些模型是非常费力的。关键的原因是，对设计的更改可能需要对模型的几个元素进行协调更改，以保持部分之间的关系。该项目的新颖之处包括操纵CAD模型的下一代接口，以及CAD系统在自动推理方面的进步。该项目的影响范围从提高设计专业人员对复杂模型进行更改的生产力，到减少希望通过重用现有模型来执行3D建模的休闲设计师的进入门槛。在这项工作中开发的软件将允许设计师快速迭代和优化设计，从而提高设计师的生产力和设计质量。基于程序综合和领域特定语言设计的结果，研究人员正在开发CAD程序的最终用户编程技术。这些技术是通过观察现代CAD工具将设计表示为通过执行一系列几何操作生成3D几何形状的程序而实现的；因此，对程序的推理被用于对设计的推理。这是通过首先开发一种描述CAD模型的语言来实现的，即使在元素和拓扑可能发生变化的情况下，该语言也可以通过模型参数的变化来保持设计的完整性。为此，该语言包含了用于精确选择或引用几何元素的新颖构造。其次，该团队正在开发CAD程序推理算法，通过将程序编辑转换为利用现成的符号和数值求解器组合的查询。最后，该团队正在开发由CAD语言和由此产生的自动推理支持的新型终端用户编程环境。这些应用包括CAD程序的双向编辑以及用于优化CAD设计的模板模型的合成。此外，该团队正在继续开展外展活动，以激励年轻学生和未被充分代表的少数民族追求STEM职业。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) plays an essential role in modern engineering. While CAD tools enable rapid creation of models, it is extremely laborious to reuse these models when creating new designs. The key reason is that changes to a design might require coordinated changes to several elements of a model to preserve relationships between parts. The project's novelties include next-generation interfaces for manipulating CAD models, and advances in automated reasoning done by the CAD system. The project's impacts range from increasing the productivity of design professionals making changes to complex models, to reducing the barrier to entry for casual designers who wish to perform 3D modeling by re-using existing models. The software developed in this work will allow designers to quickly iterate and optimize designs, leading to increased designer productivity and design quality.Building on results in program synthesis and domain-specific language design, the investigators are developing techniques for end-user programming of CAD programs. The techniques are enabled by the observation that modern CAD tools represent a design as a program that generates the 3D geometry by executing a sequence of geometric operations; reasoning about programs is thus used to reason about designs. This is achieved by first developing a language for describing CAD models that maintains design integrity through model parameter changes, even when elements and topology may vary. To this end, the language includes novel constructs for precisely selecting, or referring to, elements of geometry. Second, the team is developing algorithms for reasoning about CAD programs by transforming program edits into queries that leverage a combination of off-the-shelf symbolic and numerical solvers. Finally, the team is developing novel end-user programming environments enabled by the CAD language and the resultant automated reasoning. These applications include bidirectional editing of CAD programs as well as synthesis of template models for optimizing CAD designs. Further, the team is continuing their outreach activities to inspire young students and underrepresented minorities to pursue STEM careers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.