Towards a Natural Language Interface for CAD

We propose a natural language interface as part of the solution to the problems posed by the continuing increase in the number and sophistication of CAD tools. The advantages of a natural language interface for CAD are numerous, but the complexity of the CAD domain renders most previous work in natural language interfaces of limited utility. We describe a new approach to natural language understanding which we are implementing in an interface currently under development. This approach is based on flexibility, parallelism, and redundancy. The present status of the interface (named Cleopatra) is described, and some imperative improvements are discussed.