Open CASCADE
Encyclopedia
Open CASCADE Technology (OCCT) is a software development platform for 3D CAD
, CAM
, CAE
, etc. that is developed and supported by OPEN CASCADE
SAS. It is available under the "Open CASCADE Technology Public License" which the developer claims to be "LGPL-like with certain differences". Despite this claim, it is not listed as compatible with the GPL license by the publisher of the LGPL
, the Free Software Foundation
. The Debian
project considers the license to meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines
and has accepted Open CASCADE into its main archive after some debate
.
In March 2011, the wording of the license was subtly changed. From then on, contributors are no more inclined but now advised to send their modifications of the source code back to Open CASCADE S.A.S.
CAD software as the underlying infrastructure for its future version Euclid Quantum.
However, in 1998 the company abandoned software development to concentrate on services, and most of the software development facilities were sold to Dassault Systemes
, editor of competing CATIA
. Next year Matra Datavision decided to publish its CAS.CADE infrastructure under an Open Source model and renamed it Open CASCADE.
In 2000 a separate company OPEN CASCADE SAS was created to make business around Open CASCADE. OPEN CASCADE SAS was sold in 2003 to Principia, a French Service Provider corporation, and then in 2006 it was acquired by Euriware
Group, a subsidiary of AREVA
.
In 2004, software was renamed to Open CASCADE Technology (abbreviated as OCCT) in order to distinguish it from the name of the company itself.
WOK is de-facto a necessity for making substantial changes in OCCT since it is the only tool that provides support for CDL (CAS.CADE definition language), used for declaration of most of OCCT classes and also serving to define logical structure of OCCT libraries. WOK has been included in previous OCCT distributions; since OCCT version 6.4 it is made an independent tool.
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
, CAM
Computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing is the use of computer software to control machine tools and related machinery in the manufacturing of workpieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most common; CAM may also refer to the use of a computer to assist in all operations of a...
, CAE
Computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
, etc. that is developed and supported by OPEN CASCADE
OPEN CASCADE
Open Cascade is an Information Technology Company of Euriware, which is a subsidiary of Areva group. Open Cascade provides services in the domain of scientific and technical computing and simulation tools....
SAS. It is available under the "Open CASCADE Technology Public License" which the developer claims to be "LGPL-like with certain differences". Despite this claim, it is not listed as compatible with the GPL license by the publisher of the LGPL
GNU Lesser General Public License
The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
, the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
. The Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
project considers the license to meet the Debian Free Software Guidelines
Debian Free Software Guidelines
The Debian Free Software Guidelines is a set of guidelines that the Debian Project uses to determine whether a software license is a free software license, which in turn is used to determine whether a piece of software can be included in Debian...
and has accepted Open CASCADE into its main archive after some debate
.
In March 2011, the wording of the license was subtly changed. From then on, contributors are no more inclined but now advised to send their modifications of the source code back to Open CASCADE S.A.S.
History
CAS.CADE (abbreviated from Computer Aided Software for Computer Aided Design and Engineering) was originally developed in the early 90s by Matra Datavision, editor of EuclidEuclid (computer program)
Euclid is a CAD software which has been developed since 1970. Initially written by Jean Marc Brun and Michel The'ron at Laboratoire d'informatique pour la mécanique et les sciences de l'ingénieur for modelling fluid flow, they founded their own company, Datavision in 1979 and then sold a...
CAD software as the underlying infrastructure for its future version Euclid Quantum.
However, in 1998 the company abandoned software development to concentrate on services, and most of the software development facilities were sold to Dassault Systemes
Dassault Systemes
Dassault Systèmes S.A. is a leading company specializing in 3D and PLM software.Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling...
, editor of competing CATIA
CATIA
CATIA is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by the French company Dassault Systemes...
. Next year Matra Datavision decided to publish its CAS.CADE infrastructure under an Open Source model and renamed it Open CASCADE.
In 2000 a separate company OPEN CASCADE SAS was created to make business around Open CASCADE. OPEN CASCADE SAS was sold in 2003 to Principia, a French Service Provider corporation, and then in 2006 it was acquired by Euriware
Euriware
EURIWARE is a French company that provides advanced Consultancy and IT services in the spheres of energy, industry and defense.The core business of EURIWARE includes consultancy, systems integration and outsourcing.EURIWARE is fully owned by AREVA group, a French energy corporation mainly known as...
Group, a subsidiary of AREVA
Areva
AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...
.
In 2004, software was renamed to Open CASCADE Technology (abbreviated as OCCT) in order to distinguish it from the name of the company itself.
Object Libraries
- Foundation Classes
- Modeling Data
- Modeling Algorithms
- Visualization
- Application Framework
- Data Exchange
- DRAW
Workshop Organization Kit (WOK)
WOK (Workshop Organization Kit) is Open CASCADE development environment, which has been designed to allow a large number of developers to work on a product getting advantage of common reference version shared over the local network. Though being rather obsolete, it is still in use in some legacy environments, and in particular is used for production of certified versions of OCCT.WOK is de-facto a necessity for making substantial changes in OCCT since it is the only tool that provides support for CDL (CAS.CADE definition language), used for declaration of most of OCCT classes and also serving to define logical structure of OCCT libraries. WOK has been included in previous OCCT distributions; since OCCT version 6.4 it is made an independent tool.
Releases
Open CASCADE S.A.S. provides a public version of the library, which is released sporadically. For example, version 6.3.0 was publicly released in 2008. The next public version was 6.5.0, which was released in early 2011. There are more frequent (maintenance) releases for customers of Open CASCADE S.A.S. All releases are said to become publicly available starting from version 6.5.1.| version | release date | release type | public release |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.5.1 | 16 June 2011 | maintenance | yes |
| 6.5 | 5 March 2011 | minor | yes |
| 6.4.2 | 18 February 2011 | maintenance | no |
| 6.4.1 | 7 February 2011 | maintenance | no |
| 6.4 | 1 October 2010 | minor | no |
| 6.3.1 | 19 June 2009 | maintenance | no |
| 6.3 | 3 September 2008 | minor | yes |
| 6.2.1 | 6 December 2007 | maintenance | no |
| 6.2 | 19 March 2007 | minor | yes |
| 6.1.1 | 16 October 2006 | maintenance | no |
| 6.1 | 24 March 2006 | minor | yes |
| 5.2.4 | 29 July 2005 | maintenance | no |
| 5.2.3 | 6 May 2005 | maintenance | no |
| 5.2.2 | 24 December 2004 | maintenance | no |
| 5.2.1 | 29 October 2004 | maintenance | no |
| 5.2 | 16 July 2004 | minor | yes |
| 5.1.3 | 23 April 2004 | maintenance | no |
| 5.1.2 | 1 March 2004 | maintenance | no |
| 5.1.1 | 2 December 2003 | maintenance | no |
| 5.1 | 10 October 2003 | minor | yes |
| 5.0.2 | 1 August 2003 | maintenance | no |
| 5.0.1 | 6 June 2003 | maintenance | no |
| 5.0 | 23 May 2003 | major | yes |