Tool management in an electronic CAD framework

To set designers free from needing to become expert users of a baffling array of complex CAD fools, design environments, including simplified mechanisms to view and control CAD fools, emerged. Designers only need to be concerned with higher-level design tasks. In this paper we address CAD framework services, with special emphasis on tool management. We present three new tools: AUTOCAP, which deals with tool characterisation, invocation and encapsulation; STAR, which makes the task of controlling tool status trivial; and BALANCE, which offers automatic dynamic load balancing.