Open Source CAD code for MEMS

from the where-oh-where-is-good-software dept.
Senior Associate Michael Butler writes "At the just-past Foresight Gathering, mention was made of extant MEMS fab CAD software packages and how bad they are. Alternatives mentioned include, e.g., recycling mature finite element FORTRAN code and stitching it together with other things. It happens that Matra open sourced a bunch of CAD/CAM code last year. (Slashdot article). I suggest that interested people at Zyvex and elsewhere check out Open Cascade and see if what they're doing can be bent to your purposes. Have any nanodotters worked with this code? Butler continues: "Quoting from that site, "The Open CASCADE Object Libraries are reusable C++ object libraries for producing all types of domain-specific graphic modeling applications. The Open CASCADE Application Framework is included with Open CASCADE 3.0. It is a Rapid Application Development framework that increases your productivity by organizing and specifying your application data and architecture, structuring applications that are associative by definition, managing modification history and automatically assigning storable attributes to objects. Typical Open CASCADE developments include domain-specific CAD, manufacturing or analysis applications, simulation applications, and illustration tools." Big Ol' Caveat: useful object libraries are one thing; trying to swallow new development methodologies whole has been the death of many projects."