From a parametric description, TiGL generates both the external geometry of an aircraft exposed to aerodynamic loads and the load-bearing internal structure.
TiGL is a library for generating 3D geometries from parametrized CPACS/XML data sets.
Using the CPACS file format and TiGL, you can model a wide range of aircraft, spacecraft and rotorcraft.
TiGL comes with bindings to popular programming languages, including Python, Matlab, and Java. You can even use TiGL together with PythonOCC to create new geometries or extend TiGL.
TiGL is used in and outside the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for aircraft design analysis and optimization and is used by many different analysis tools. The file exports to CAD file formats are a standardized interface to industry established software.
Optimising an aircraft to minimise fuel consumption, for example, involves many disciplines, each with their own simulation tools. Many of these simulation tools require precise modelling of the aircraft geometry. At DLR, this task is performed by the TiGL (TiGL Geometry Library) software, which generates a complete three-dimensional geometric representation of the aircraft from a parametric geometry description.
TiGL provides the interface between the parametric CPACS description of the aircraft and the simulation tools. TiGL provides functions for exporting the geometry to common CAD formats (IGES, STEP, VTK) as well as functions for calculating points and curves on the aircraft surface.
TiGL uses the OpenCASCADE CAD kernel to model the aircraft geometry with NURBS surfaces. The library also provides interfaces to many common programming languages such as C, C++, Python, Java and MATLAB. In addition, the TiGL software package includes the TiGL Viewer that enables also the visualization of the aircraft geometries and other CAD files.
TiXI is a software development of the Institute for Software Technology. It is a fast and simple XML interface library that can be used in C, C++, Fortran, JAVA and Python. The library can be integrated directly into the code of third party software, such as TiGL. It is a useful tool for all users who want to avoid the complexity of XML when creating new applications.
TiGL is available as Open Source and we encourage anyone to make use of it. If you are applying TiGL in a scientific environment and publish any related work, please cite the following artice:
Siggel, M., Kleinert, J., Stollenwerk, T. et al: TiGL: An Open Source Computational Geometry Library for Parametric Aircraft Design. Math.Comput.Sci. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11786-019-00401-y
A free copy of this paper can be accessed under the following link: https://rdcu.be/bIGUH
