DEVELOPING ELECTRICAL C.A.E. IN WESTLAND HELICOPTERS

Westland have developed ELECTRICAD/ ELECTRICAM for the design and manufacture of electrical wiring for our helicopters. It is a fully integrated Computer Aided Engineering system used by the drawing and production engineering offices through to the first-build and manufacturing shops. ELECTRICAD is used to DEFINE the wiring system, this information subsequently being sent to ELECTRICAM for manufacture. It has both a graphical interface for the wiring diagrams and an alphanumeric interface to enter and control the data relating to equipment usage and harness information. Until recently, the system could only be used on different types of terminals for the graphical and the alpha user interfaces. With the advent of Xwindows technology (callable through the Graphics Kernel System standard) we have been able to integrate all the interfaces onto one "piece of glass". This has brought added advantages to (and highlighted problems in) the process that were not originally perceived. The elements of the graphical interface are laid out, emphasizing the simplicity and obvious nature of their use. The use of both a double menu system and the minimal use of special keys will be discussed, showing how a balance between these two elements can minimise the complexity to the user, while giving the user a feature rich environment. The opportunities that Xterminals have presented give us a wish list, that will apply pressure for us to make the system more complex, but also offer further dimensions of user cognizance. Building on the success of the graphical user interface, and with a larger number of examples of alphanumeric human interfaces, the opportunity was taken, to develop the simplest, yet powerful operational environment. The four fundamental types of operation are described, with the necessary cross functional use of hot keys. This enabled the speedy development of the software using "boilerplate" programs while maintaining commonality of user interface and easing the process of software maintenance.