What Are Kernels?
If you have taken an active interest in 3D CAD software and are learning what is “under the hood,” then you may have read or heard about kernels. What are they and what do farming and planting terms have to do with software? Well, as you may have already deduced, the word kernel is a metaphor for describing the heart of the software, a starting point from which everything else grows, the same as a kernel of corn. This analogy is quite accurate: A 3D modeling kernel is the computer code that depicts the “brains” of any 3D software package, such as CATIA, NX, Pro/Engineer, SolidWorks, Inventor, and of course AutoCAD.
As it turns out, kernels are quite rare. This is because they are extremely difficult, expensive, and ...
Get Up and Running with AutoCAD 2014 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
