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Library content added to Aerospace topic in UG (#575)
* Library content added to Aerospace topic in UG * Clarification in aeronautical engineering topic
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Peter Turcan
GitHub
@@ -13,20 +13,146 @@ There are some specific challenges in the design and building of aircraft, that
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This topic examines the pressure on software engineers when working in the aeronautical design space: a space where `sqrt(x*x + y*y)` might not be acceptable, whereas `boost::math::hypot(x, y);` works.
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image:aerospace-design.png[Aircraft design blueprint]
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[square]
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* <<Aeronautical Design Fundamentals>>
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* <<Libraries>>
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* <<Next Steps>>
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* <<See Also>>
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== Aeronautical Design Fundamentals
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Boost Libraries have a number of components that can play important roles in building a co-operative (distributed) design system. These libraries won't give you a full “collaboration system” out of the box, but they provide powerful building blocks for networking, concurrency, data exchange, task distribution, serialization, and scripting integration — all foundational pieces of a distributed CAD/PDM/PLM system.
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A cooperative aircraft design system must support:
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. Distributed teams (multiple time zones, intermittent connectivity)
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. Strong data integrity and traceability (certification pressure)
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. Concurrent edits on large models (geometry, constraints, metadata)
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. Heavy computation (FEA, CFD, optimization)
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. Modular extensibility (tools evolve over decades)
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image:aerospace-design.png[Aircraft design blueprint]
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The modelling service component owns the "truth" of geometry and constraints. Conflict resolution is a well known challenge - engineer A moves an aircraft rib, whilst engineer B instead, increases the rib thickness. Something like this may well need to be flagged for human resolution
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When building a system for use anywhere in the aerospace industry, it is a good idea to stick to these core principles:
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. Command determinism - No hidden randomness and no time-based logic without injected clocks.
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. Immutable inputs - Commands are value objects and model state is derived, not mutated ad hoc.
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. Controlled time - Simulated time replaces wall-clock time.
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. Replay-first mindset - Tests are replays and live execution is just “replay at real-time speed”.
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. Time-Travel Debugging - Step forward _and_ backward through events.
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. Section Cuts (an aerospace favorite) - Auto-generate spanwise cuts, diff cross-sections, and plot profiles.
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*A deterministic simulation of engineering intent is what exactly what certification bodies care about.*
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Design and simulation are a big part of the story. Then comes testing.
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In aerospace terms: _if you can't replay it, you can't certify it_. An aircraft test harness must answer questions like:
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* Can we replay every design change exactly?
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* Are distributed services deterministic?
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* Does concurrency produce identical results across runs?
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* Can we detect regressions in geometry, constraints, and analysis?
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* Can we reproduce a failure years later?
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This goes far beyond unit tests.
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One of Boost's quiet superpowers is numerical correctness without fanfare - the standard library often prioritizes _simplicity_ whereas Boost prioritizes _correctness_.
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Numerical errors are design flaws, not rounding accidents!
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Note:: Acronyms are dense in aerospace. FEA is _Finite Element Analysis_ (essentially breaking complex structures into small elements for testing and behavior). CFD is _Computational Fluid Dynamics_ (for example, modelling turbulence). PLM is _Product Lifecycle Management_ (tracking changes, metadata, milestones) but can also mean _Part Load Management_. PDM is _Product Data Management_, managing exactly what data exists and which version is authoritative, but it can also mean _Power Distribution Module_. Context is mandatory - the unofficial rule is "if someone doesn't ask for clarification, they probably misunderstand"!
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== Libraries
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* boost:math[]: Provides carefully implemented, well-documented algorithms for elementary and special functions with known accuracy characteristics, correct handling of edge cases, and predictable behavior across compilers and architectures. Functions like `hypot`, robust inverse trig, stable polynomial evaluation, and well-behaved probability distributions eliminate entire classes of silent numerical failures that are notoriously hard to reproduce and even harder to certify. Equally important, this library supports a verification-first engineering culture. Its scale-aware comparisons, error bounds, and compatibility with multi-precision backends allow engineers to create reference implementations and numerical “gold standards” alongside high-performance code. This is exactly what certification demands: the ability to demonstrate not only that results are fast, but that they are correct _within defined tolerances_, repeatable years later, and defensible under audit. The library quietly delivers numerical trust.
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* boost:math[] : Provides carefully implemented, well-documented algorithms for elementary and special functions with known accuracy characteristics, correct handling of edge cases, and predictable behavior across compilers and architectures. Functions like `hypot`, robust inverse trig, stable polynomial evaluation, and well-behaved probability distributions eliminate entire classes of silent numerical failures that are notoriously hard to reproduce and even harder to certify. Equally important, this library supports a verification-first engineering culture. Its scale-aware comparisons, error bounds, and compatibility with multi-precision backends allow engineers to create reference implementations and numerical “gold standards” alongside high-performance code. This is exactly what certification demands: the ability to demonstrate not only that results are fast, but that they are correct _within defined tolerances_, repeatable years later, and defensible under audit. The library quietly delivers numerical trust, and avoid such things as _floating-point drift_ and _order-dependent drift_.
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image:aerospace-gear.png[Aircraft gear blueprint]
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* boost:accumulators[] : This provides numerically stable statistics, preventing _summation_drift_ and an answer to _never sum large datasets naïvely_.
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* boost:asio[] : A distributed design system must support robust, scalable communication — real-time updates, distributed computation requests, and client-server synchronization.
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* boost:serialization[] and boost:interprocess[] :Save/load complex design models, and useful if modules on the same machine need fast shared data access.
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* boost:geometry[], boost:polygon[], and boost:graph[] : These libs work well with design and CAD-related math, 2D polygon manipulation, and representing complex relationships (dependency graphs, design hierarchies).
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* boost:thread[], boost:lockfree[], and boost:fiber[] : All to provide UI responsiveness with background computations.
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* boost:signals2[] : Useful for local publish/subscribe patterns within a module.
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* boost:program_options[] and boost:property_tree[] : Useful for server/service configuration and for storing structured metadata.
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== Next Steps
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image:aerospace-gear.png[Aircraft gear blueprint]
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Wrap your mind around the high level architecture, think federated services, not a monolith:
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[source,text]
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----
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┌────────────┐ ┌────────────┐
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│ CAD Client │ │ Analysis │
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│ │ │ Client │
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└─────┬──────┘ └─────┬──────┘
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│ │
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├───────┬──────────┤
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▼
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┌───────────────────────┐
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│ Collaboration Gateway │
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│(Boost.Asio/Beast/Json)│
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└──────────┬────────────┘
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│
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┌──────────────┼──────────────────┐
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│ │ │
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▼ ▼ ▼
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Model Service Compute Service Metadata Service
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(Geometry) (FEA/CFD) (PLM / audit)
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----
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And consider your test harness/certification architecture right from the start:
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[source,text]
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----
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┌──────────────────────────────┐
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│ Test Runner (CLI) │
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│ (Boost.ProgramOptions) │
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└────────────┬─────────────────┘
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▼
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┌──────────────────────────────┐
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│ Scenario Loader │
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│ (Boost.Filesystem) │
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└────────────┬─────────────────┘
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▼
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┌──────────────────────────────┐
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│ Event Replayer │
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│ (Boost.Serialization) │
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└────────────┬─────────────────┘
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▼
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┌──────────────────────────────┐
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│ Virtual Services │
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│ (Model / Compute / Metadata) │
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└────────────┬─────────────────┘
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▼
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┌──────────────────────────────┐
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│ Verifier │
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│ (Boost.Test / Geometry) │
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└──────────────────────────────┘
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----
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Start with correctness in mind, and continue along that path.
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== See Also
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