Contributions to Conferences

A study for neutral format to exchange and reuse engineering knowledge in KBE applications

Abstract

In the discipline of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), we propose a study for a possible solution to reuse pieces of engineering knowledge that have been already represented in other software tools. They are mainly programs or CAD files, and are usually stored in companies repositories (databases and PLM systems among the others). For reusing, we mean the possibility of replicating tout-court a specific set of rules, geometry and user interfaces in different projects, software and even application field. In particular, we propose the adoption of a tailored language based on XML syntax, whose taxonomy allows describing the most common aspects of the engineering design process: (1) products architectures description, with their parts relations and design rules; (2) design processes description, with the interactions between companies knowledge and products. We thus propose the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) file to fulfill this achievement. The RIF file is the main output of a specific Work Package in the context of the LinkedDesign European Commission founded project. It is represented by an XML schema where we translated and joined together two of the most common knowledge formalization modeling languages into XML tags: a UML Class Diagram based pattern, to describe products architectures; a IDEF0 Diagram based pattern, to describe design processes. In order to include the description of design automation aspects, to be used with KBE systems, we enriched the mentioned patterns introducing special tags for managing product configuration rules and connections interfaces with CAD tools and PLM.