OODS: an object-oriented design system - an example of electronics assemblies

Object-oriented design is viewed as a promising approach for handling a wid e variety of design problems. However, little work has been done to date on developing object-oriented design systems that can handle a variety of des ign problems. This paper describes an object-oriented design system (OODS) that uses an object-oriented formalism called design with objects (DwO). Th e background to DwO is described including the DwO design model, the other design objects in DwO, the use of DwO methods and the resulting design proc ess models. The decomposition of objects in GODS is then described, followe d by a description of the configuration system object and the user interfac e (UI) object. The implementation of GODS is then detailed. This implementa tion uses the Internet to communicate between GODS and users, and with data bases that may be geographically scattered. The use of GODS is illustrated by a description of an application as an example that involves the design o f electronics assemblies. The contribution of this paper is threefold. Firs t, a new object-oriented design formalism is presented. Second, an implemen tation architecture for this formalism is described, and, third, an example application is presented showing how this approach can be used. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.