Variant Design Automation - Strategy and Procedure for Storing Design Process Information

Paper in proceeding, 2004

When creating a design automation system for a mature product there already exists a complete and functional product design and the task is to retrace the initial design process to find the input parameters, algorithms, rules, relations and solution strategies (design process information) that govern this initial design. This paper presents strategies and procedures for retracing, naming, classifying and storing the design process information governing the design variables of a mature product design, seen from a CAD representation perspective. Emphasis is on strategy for storing the design process information for use with the CAD representation as well as system transparency and efficient reuse of the documented and stored information.