Design Process Modeling for the Future CAD Systems

To develop the future CAD systems that support functions of design process modeling, an evolutionary design database model is introduced in this research to describe design requirements and design results developed at different design stages from conceptual design to detailed design. In this model, the evolutionary design database is represented by a sequence of worlds corresponding to the design descriptions at different design stages. In each world, only the differences with its ancestor world are recorded. When the design descriptions in one world are changed, these changes are then propagated to its descendant worlds automatically. Case study is conducted to show the effectiveness of this evolutionary design database model.