A FUNCTIONAL DATA MODEL FOR ASSEMBLIES USED TO VERIFY PRODUCT DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

During the design of a product periodic reviews must be conducted to v erify that the product will meet its specification. However, there are few, if any, computer-based design systems that aid in engineering pr ocesses other than those involving low-level geometry. This paper desc ribes two applications that use a functional representation of a produ ct to aid the designer during the redesign process. The applications a re aimed at assisting designers in checking that a design meets all th e requirements in a product's specification. The form of the data used by the applications is defined by a data model that allows the repres entation of the function of each feature, component and assembly in th e product. This functional data model has the strength that it can rep resent a product as both a structural and a functional hierarchy. The paper concludes by describing results of experiments using a mechanica l engineering product as a case study.