Role-based 3D visualisation for asynchronous PLM collaboration

Secure and pervasive 3D CAD model sharing among all collaborative participants is vital to successful Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications. However, existing product data management (PDM) solutions only provide rigid 3D data access control mechanism like ‘all-or-nothing’ scenario and thus prevents companies from sharing their 3D data effectively. 3D data sharing can be facilitated if proper technologies are available to break the previous two-grade (grant-or-deny) scheme into more levels and present to a user a 3D model with proper level of detail reduction. Therefore, a collaborator can work on his 3D data as full model while viewing other models in lighter visualisation as mesh or bounding boxes. This paper proposes role-based visualisation to realise the above concept and a prototype system is developed to validate the proposed approach in commercial CAD/PDM applications. Several key issues and future work are discussed.     

A Product Data Management architecture for integrating hardware and software development

This paper proposes an architecture of Product Data Management (PDM) for integrating Software Configuration Management (SCM). The proposed architecture extends its data model to support version items for SCM. Its applications support both PDM and SCM functionalities, as well as integrate hardware parts and software items in product configurations and engineering change management. The architecture is implemented by using a commercial Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system. The implementation enables hardware engineers and software programmers to share the same user environment, on a consistent database during the collaborative product development.     

基于Web的协同设计环境下产品数据管理系统模型研究

首先分析了基于Ｗeb的产品数据管理系统功能需求,结合网络应用特点及面向对象技术,提出一个以模块为核心来组织、管理,发布信息的分布式产品数据管理系统模型－－ＤＰＤＭ（Ｄistributed Product Data Management）,并分析了其体系结构,其目的是为设计者提供一个支持协同设计的开放式开发环境,以提高产品质量,缩短开发时间。     

Conception Innovation Design System Based on PDM Framework

The system is based on the globally shared product model conforming to VRML Standard, and uses SmarTeam (PDM) system to integrate and encapsulate CAD, CAE and other application software for product development. The system takes sugarcane harvester? mobile telephone design analysis and evaluation as an example, and utilizes fuzzy evaluation principle to evaluate the design and simulation analysis results for decisions making. The platform provides a collaborative intelligent environment f…     

A CAE-integrated distributed collaborative design system for finite element analysis of complex product based on SOOA

Large-scale finite element analysis of complex product needs a wider support from external CAE resources. This paper proposes a method of the distributed concurrent and collaborative design in the distributed intelligent resources environment to use Web-based extended manufacturing resources for product development. The CAE-integrated distributed collaborative design system architecture and enabling techniques are presented. Distributed CAE service resources on the Internet are achieved through Jini^TM and service object-oriented architecture technologies. These CAE software tool resources are encapsulated as service providers in the system. A case study of railway bogie development is presented, and the Pro/E, HyperMesh, Ansys and HumanExpert service providers dynamically invoked and integrated as a temporary service federated environment with no need to know the exact location of a provider beforehand, flexibility can be well achieved, and collaborative design in the system can be implemented in the distributed dynamic environment. Compared with the traditional design system, some preliminary results indicate this architecture can shorten the cycle of service exchange, and strongly support concurrent and collaborative design of the complex product.     

Dynamic data sharing and security in a collaborative product definition management system

Product definition management (PDM) is a system that supports management of both engineering data and the product development process during the total product life cycle. The formation of a virtual enterprise is becoming a growing trend, and vendors of PDM systems have recently developed a new generation of PDM systems called collaborative product definition management (cPDM). This paper presents the concept of a virtual engineering community (VEC) to support concurrent product development within geographically distributed partners. A previous case study has shown that collaborative engineering design may be modelled from a parameter perspective [1]. Effective implementation of the parameter approach raises the following problems: how to support data sharing and secure that span the partner borders. This paper describes the system architecture, deployed security mechanisms, the prototype developed within cPDM, and the system demonstration using a real test. The implementation of this architecture extends a common commercial PDM system (Axalan™) and utilizes standard software to create a security framework for the involved resources. Collaboration infrastructure, shared team spaces and shared resources are essential to enable virtual teams to work together. Various organizational and technical challenges are implied. The outlined architecture features a federated data approach. These issues are discussed and potential perspectives in the area of collaboration engineering are identified.     

An intelligent database for engineering applications

Many engineering applications need to response to unpredictable events in a timely manner. Active database systems provide an event-driven rule processing capability to meet this requirement. In this paper, we present an intelligent database which integrates an object-oriented database (OODB) with an expert system, CLIPS. The paper describes the design and implementation of the rule manager of this intelligent database. In the rule manager, event-condition-action (ECA) rules are represented as first class objects of the OODB. A rule definition language (RDL) has been developed to manipulate ECA rules in a declarative way. A graphical user interface (GUI) also supplies a template to interactively define, delete, update and check ECA rules. Detection of time events, method events, absolute events and composite events is supported by the rule manager. The CLIPS inference engine is used to control condition evaluation and action execution after an ECA rule is triggered. Finally, a typical workflow application is used to illustrate the functionality of the system.     

Architecture of an open object-oriented database management system

The architecture of the open object-oriented database (OODB) management system, its requirements, and its computational model, which builds database functionality as an extensible collection of transparent extensions to existing programming languages, are described. The way in which open OODB's system architecture is decomposed into a kernal meta-architecture and a collection of modules implementing specific behavioral extensions is discussed. The potential risks of the open OODB architecture are reviewed     

Research on Service-Oriented SBA supporting environment

SBA (Simulation based acquisition) is a new method to apply modeling and simulation technologies collaboratively into the whole acquisition process of weapon systems. In this paper, SOA (Service-oriented Architecture) is adopted to establish a Service-Oriented SBA supporting environment for effectively sharing and integrating different, heterogeneous acquisition resources as services. The SBA supporting environment is mainly for astronautics/aeronautics product acquisition process. Architecture of Service-Oriented SBA supporting environment is proposed and a prototype system is established to support collaborative acquisition process. The focus is put on the realization of a SBA collaborative environment, which is the core part of the SBA supporting environment. Implementation and integration of four kinds of key services and related technologies in the SBA collaborative environment are introduced separately. The services are the collaborative management service, the meta-synthesis workshop service, the collaborative modeling/simulation platform service and the collaborative PDM service.     

基于PDM Enablers的飞行器并行设计文档管理模型

传统的产品数据管理（PDM）系统之间没有标准的接口,缺乏互操作性,难以与国际接轨,限制了飞行器并行设计中产品数据交互的范围。Object Management Group（OMG）发布的产品数据管理使能（PDM Enablers）规范支持分布式产品数据管理环境并对不同的PDM系统提供了标准接口,能够很好地解决以上问题。该文以PDM Enablers为依据,采用面向对象的建模方法,首先提出了基于Enablers的飞行器并行工程环境体系结构;其次建立了基于Enablers的文档管理模型,并着重对文档的状态变迁及版本管理机制进行研究;最后讨论了支持飞行器并行设计的文档管理信息存储模式。     

基于协同虚拟环境的装配设计系统

针对分布式环境中复杂产品协同开发的装配设计需求,研究基于协同虚拟环境的装配设计系统的体系结构和关键技术,提出分布式条件下支持多用户实时交互操作的协同虚拟装配方法,包括复杂场景高分辨率实时渲染和多通道沉浸输出方案。以此为基础开发分布式协同虚拟装配环境,并通过面向汽车整车的多用户协同虚拟装配实例验证了系统的有效性。结果证明,用户可在该系统中完成复杂产品的协同虚拟装配设计工作。     

基于上下文的分布式协同过滤推荐技术

针对传统协同过滤推荐技术应用于大规模动态数据集时难以兼顾准确度和效率的问题,提出一种基于上下文的分布式协同过滤推荐技术,引入推荐上下文的概念,并在此基础上充分考虑用户的即时兴趣以提高推荐的准确度,采用评分矩阵的分布式存储和计算以提高推荐的效率。实验结果表明,该分布式协同过滤技术能同时保证推荐的准确度和效率,使其在大规模动态数据集上的应用更具优势。     

IFOOD: an intelligent fuzzy object-oriented database architecture

Next generation information system applications require powerful and intelligent information management that necessitates an efficient interaction between database and knowledge base technologies. It is also important for these applications to incorporate uncertainty in data objects, in integrity constraints, and/or in application. In this study, we propose an intelligent object-oriented database architecture, FOOD, which permits the flexible modeling and querying of complex data and knowledge including uncertainty with powerful retrieval capability.     

Integration of engineering change objects in product data management databases to support engineering change analysis

This study proposes a product data management (PDM) database that can support engineering change analysis (ECA). It can integrate ECA with the existing main product development process managed by PDM systems. Since engineering change (EC) history is a key EC data element that enables ECA, this study extends PDM databases to represent the EC history with existing entities for ECs and associated products and their product structures. To show the feasibility of the proposed PDM database, this study integrates a prototype PDM system with on-line analytical processing (OLAP) tools and a data mining module for ECA. It also applies the implemented tools to two typical ECA applications, EC evaluation and EC propagation problems. The illustrative application examples show that the proposed PDM database can support ECA through multidimensional data analysis with OLAP and data mining with association rules.     

A concurrency control model for PDM systems

In today's manufacturing environment, enterprises having work groups geographically dispersed are not uncommon. A product data management (PDM) system is therefore required for controlling the distribution and maintaining the integrity of the product data throughout its entire lifecycle; the efficiency of a PDM system is greatly affected by the concurrency control method it adopts. The paper proposes a concurrent control model for PDM that can also caters for version management and product architecture. The paper discusses how granularity and versioning are being embedded into a lock-based concurrency control model. The concurrent accessibility of an example product data is explained to illustrate the adjustability according to the actions taken by the users and the architecture of the corresponding entities.     

An object-oriented bill of materials system for dynamic product management

In this paper, the bill of materials (BOM) system is defined as the central hub of a general product data management (PDM) system that provides essential data for running a manufacturing system to produce products. Information that is relevant to products and their components is defined in the BOM. The information is critically related to data from product design, manufacturing planning, production management, procurement, inventory control, and accounting within a company. A conventional BOM structure (or product configuration), which manages data only in a stand-alone relational database management style, cannot satisfy the needs requested by all departments within a company. A BOM should relate to and communicate with other domains of the information system. In this research, a newly designed BOM system uses the object-oriented programming (OOP) concept to represent product information. The object-oriented BOM (OOBOM) system can capture and encapsulate data that will simultaneously serve the information needs of various departments. In order to manage product data dynamically, the system provides several interfaces for easy data access and manipulation. The linkage between BOM and its corresponding CAD/CAM system is enabled through the X-window manager: thus an integrated PDM environment is developed. This product management approach improves the consistency and efficiency of product data representation.     

基于PDM-Smarteam的广义设计信息建模方法研究

产品数据管理系统在支持产品快速开发方面，存在诸多缺点，该文就此作了深入分析，提出了广义设计信息的概念，用面向对象的方法作了类图设计，深入研究了产品数据管理系统的对象建模方法，以商业产品数据管理软件Smarteam作为平台，初步实现了广义设计信息的建模。     

Representation of spatial data in an OODB using roughand fuzzy set modeling

This paper introduces and formally defines a fuzzy rough object-oriented database (OODB) model based on a formal framework using an algebraic type system and formally defined constraints. This generalized model incorporates both rough set and fuzzy set uncertainty, while remaining compliant with object-oriented database standards set forth by the Object Database Management Group. Rough and fuzzy set uncertainty enhance the OODB model so that it can more accurately model real world applications. Spatial databases have a particular need for uncertainty management that can be achieved through rough and fuzzy techniques.     

面向对象数据库中查询处理技术的研究

在面向对象数据库（OODB）中，查询处理是其中重要的部分。在联系关系数据库（RDB）查询处理的基础上，综合考虑了数据模型，查询模型和查询处理等因素，提出了一种全新的面向对象数据库系统（OODBS）查询策略，运用关系数据库系统（RDBS）实现技术可以有效地解决OODB领域的许多问题，使得OODB无论从语义上还是效率上都有可能成为最有前途的数据库系统。     

Translating object-oriented database transactions into relational transactions

In this paper, we present methods of translating transactions from object-oriented database (OODB) to relational database (RDB). The process involves schema mapping in data definition language and transaction translation in data manipulation language. They include scheme definition, data query and transaction operation of insert, update, and deletion. We also discuss the object-oriented features in OODB operations that are not supported by RDB, such as class hierarchy, class composition hierarchy, and set attribute, and provide a general solution to realize those mechanisms by traditional relation operations. The result of the transaction translation can be applied into adding object-oriented interface into relational database management system and to the interoperability between OODB and RDB.