This gives BRL-CAD the capability to be "more than skin deep" and build objects with real-world materials, densities, and thicknesses so that analysts can study physical phenomena such as ballistic penetration and thermal, radiative, neutron, and other types of transport. While polygonal and boundary representation (B-rep) modeling often focuses on just the surfaces of objects, CSG modeling focuses on the entire volume and content of objects.
Accordingly, developers have found CSG modeling to be the best approach in terms of model accuracy, storage efficiency, precision, and speed of computational analysis. Finally, BRL-CAD users can accurately model objects on scales ranging from the subatomic through the galactic and get "all the details, all the time."Īlthough BRL-CAD has been used for a wide variety of engineering and graphics applications, the package's primary purpose continues to be the support of (1) ballistic and (2) electromagnetic analyses. Another strength of the package is the speed of its ray tracer, which is one of the fastest in existence. In addition, BRL-CAD simultaneously supports dual interaction methods, one using a command line and one using a graphical user interface (GUI).Ī particular strength of the package lies in its ability to build and analyze realistic models of complex objects using a relatively small set of "primitive shapes." To do this, the shapes are manipulated by employing the basic Boolean operations of union, subtraction, and intersection. It contains a large collection of tools, utilities, and libraries including an interactive geometry editor, ray tracing and generic framebuffer libraries, a network-distributed image-processing and signal-processing capability, and a customizable embedded scripting language. Now comprising almost a million lines of C code, BRL-CAD has become a powerful constructive solid geometry (CSG) modeling package that has been licensed at over 2,000 sites throughout the world. When no existing computer-aided design (CAD) package was found to be adequate for this purpose, BRL software developers began assembling a suite of utilities capable of interactively displaying, editing, and interrogating geometric models. Army Research Laboratory ) expressed a need for interactive tools that could assist with the computer simulation and engineering analysis of combat vehicle systems and environments. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) (now the U.S. The result has been a reduction in the amount of time and money required to take a system from the drawing board to full-scale production as well as increased efficiency in testing and evaluation.
Tip: Try to open the BRL file using a text-editor such as Notepad, as many file types contain simply contain unformatted plain-text and can viewed correctly using this method.Since the late 1950's, computers have been used to assist with the design and study of combat vehicle systems. Please check back soon for more information as we are constantly updating our file descriptions based on search frequency. We have yet to investigate this file type further, or there was not enough information available at the time to report accurately on the format. This file format was added to our database by a visitor to this site, but no additional information was provided. If you are unable to open the file this way, it may be because you do not have the correct application associated with the extension to view or edit the BRL file. The best way to open an BRL file is to simply double-click it and let the default assoisated application open the file. If you are aware of any additional file formats that use the BRL extension, please let us know. BRL extension are known as Ballistic Research Laboratory CAD files, however other file types may also use this extension. Have you found, downloaded or received an BRL file, but don't know which software program is required to open it?īefore attempting to open an BRL file, you'll need to determine what kind of file you are dealing with and whether it is even possible to open or view the file format.Īnswer: Files which are given the.