Geometric algorithms are often proprietary, closed, or otherwise unavailable to large numbers of people. FixtureNet was an early effort to make modular fixturing available via the Web. In this paper, we have enhanced and extended FixtureNet through the balanced use of client-side processing. The new version provides the same basic part input and fixture display facilities as the original, but the user interface is much more responsive because the user interface processing is performed locally on the client machine using Java.
After FixtureNet II submits a part of the FixtureNet server and receives a solution, we provide two new tools to perform interactive analysis of the fixture. First the user can simulate the effect of forces on the part through a real-time display of the reaction forces. Secondly, the user can consider modifications to the part to see how much the part can change and still be compatible with the original fixture. Both of these interactive tools build a much deeper intuition about the fixture and how it interacts with the part.