FW: Multiple Pictures per Metafile

Technical Fellow - Graphics/Digital Data Interchange
Boeing Commercial Airplane
206.544.3560, fax 206.662.3734
david.w.cruikshank@boeing.com

As the United Airlines representative for Graphics and Engineering Drawings I would like to enter an item on the agenda for ATA, CGM Open, and ISO. When CGM was first introduced it was to facilitate the exchange of "illustrations" as they were depicted in Maintenance type manuals such as Illustrated Parts Catalogs, Component Maintnenace Manuals, Maintenance Manuals, Wiring Diagram Manuals, System Schematic Manuals, etc. Illustrations inherently are composed of individual figures with each figure being a single picture within a metafile so the curent restriction of one picture per metafile worked fine for maintenance type manuals. Little, if any, attention was paid to engineering drawings. Over the years several CGM viewers have been implemented in systems used to display engineering drawings. Autoview's Cimmetry viewer being one of those. It essentially takes CATIA 2D source data and converts it into a CGM for display purposes, and does a nice job of it up to a point. Engineering drawings are typically made up of mutiple sheets. In CAD systems like CATIA these multiple sheets are stored in a single file. The showstopper being that the CGM viewers can display only one sheet of a multi-sheet drawing. This makes them practically useless at all levels of review and manufacturing, forcing users to print out hard copies. Is this something that one of your committees can take on and help resolve by updating the ATA, CGM Open, and ISO specs to accommodate mutiple pictures per metafile? Thanks.

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