The following discussion considers computer-aided mechanism design in terms of the practical designer's concern — cost effectiveness. Applied design philosophy is reviewed to examine various types of software, both traditional and innovative. The situation of small/medium companies considering acquisition of such software is primarily addressed. The development of the ‘Subroutine Package’ approach is described and its merits compared to conventional general purpose software packages.
A subroutine package approach to mechanism design, considers a system to be composed of a limited number of constituent elements. Each subroutine in a package models the behaviour of such an element. An example, which has been developed, is the Linkage Analysis Package (LAP), and an example of its use is given. The user writes a simple (Fortran) calling program to input/output data and call the appropriate subroutines. This represents a ‘self-customized’ interface that is inherently highly cost effective. As the design problem changes, the same interface may be used after limited modification and reselection of the necessary subroutines. Thus a flexible, user-friendly and low-cost computer-aided design tool is available to designers, solving all but the most specialized problems. 相似文献