Complicad

Complicad is a term used in computer-aided design to describe methods and technologies that compress, simplify, or otherwise manage complex CAD data for efficient storage, transmission, and viewing.

The concept covers both data encoding and geometric simplification, often balancing size reduction with the preservation of essential geometry and parametric information.

There is no universal standard named "complicad"; instead, it is a descriptive umbrella for various vendor-specific or research implementations.

Techniques include geometry decimation (reducing polygon counts while preserving shape), feature-preserving simplification, level-of-detail representations, instance-based modeling to reuse repeated components, and delta or differential encoding. Some approaches focus on preserving parametric relations and constraints, while others favor mesh-based representations.

Interoperability remains a challenge because CAD systems typically use different internal models (boundary representation, NURBS, T-splines) and semantic information.

Applications include cloud-based collaboration, streaming visualization for mobile devices, rapid prototyping workflows, and archival of large assemblies.

Related standards and formats that intersect with complicad concepts include STEP, IGES, JT, 3D PDF, glTF, and various mesh compression schemes.