INTEGRATED DESIGN AND COLLABORATIVE ENGINEERING OF FABRIC STRUCTURES

The design of fabric structures incorporates specfic aspects due to th e tight interdependency between geometric, mechanical and manufacturin g data used by the different professional partners. This is highlighte d through the analysis of the various steps of the design process. A d esign approach, that rakes into account the various actors, their know ledge and the techniques available within each of the previous fields has been set up. This approach relies on the identification of the flo w of information and on the organization of data sets that are compati ble with the design process breakdown into tasks in order to preserve their integration. Approximation methods are associated with some of t his information to create design phases adapted to each actor through software tools implementing various modelling processes. The form find ing process, the mechanical analysis of the structure, the determinati on of cutting patterns are examples of such modelling processes. The s urface model of the fabric structure is one of such sets of data which has been identified and used to preserve the integration of the desig n process. Associated with the integrated design architecture, a colla borative environment helps to set up communication between some of the actors according to the design process organization. This environment acts as a complementary tool to help seeking compromises among the ac tors participating in a given phase of the design process. The communi cation tools work on a distributed architecture in such a manner that dialogue objects are shared among the actors.