VISIONMANAGER - A COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT FOR DESIGN EVOLUTION CAPTURE

Computer-based design evolution capture in a multi-disciplinary projec t environment remains a difficult problem. This paper describes Vision Manager, a prototype for design evolution capture, visualization, and reuse in support of multi-disciplinary collaborative teamwork. Based o n our research experience, our hypothesis is that one of the key facto rs in reducing life-cycle cost is improved communication, coordination and cooperation among team members. VisionManager accommodates and in tegrates many perspectives within a design and manufacturing enterpris e. It allows team members to: (1) augment shared graphic design models with the team members' design intents, interests, and responsibilitie s, (2) capture versions at different levels of granularity, such as, f eature, discipline perspective, and project level, (3) create private, public, and consensus versions in a hierarchical archive, (4) infer s hared interests and route change notifications with regard to a modifi ed feature or perspective, (5) visualize the design evolution of featu res, discipline perspectives, and the overall project based on capture d semantics, and (6) reuse previous alternatives. VisionManager is dis tinguished from the state-of-the-art File-based document management sy stems and proposes a model-based and content-based approach for design evolution capture, visualization, and reuse.