Ebook: Modeling Design Objects and Processes

A little more than a decade ago my colleagues and I faced the necessity for providing a database management system which might commonly serve a number of different types of computer aided design applications at different manufacturing enterprises. We evaluated some wellknown cases of conceptual models and commercially available DBMSs, and found none fuHy meeting the requirements. Yet the analysis of them led us to the development of what we named the Logical Structure Management System (LMS). Syntactically the LMS language is somewhat similar to ALPHA by E. F. Codd. The underly­ ing conceptual model is entirely different from that of the relational model, however. LMS has been since put into practical use, meanwhile a further ef­ fort in search of asound theoretical base and a concrete linguistic framework for true product modeling together with comparative studies of various ap­ proaches has been made. Here, the term product modeling is used to signify the construction of informational models of design objects and design pro­ cesses in which it must be possible to include not a fixed set of attributes and relations, such as geometry, physical properties, part-of hierarchy, etc. , but whatever aspects of design designers may desire to be included. The purpose of this book is to present the major results of the said effort, which are primarily of a theoretical or conceptual nature. Following the intro­ duction (Chap.

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This thorough and comprehensive monograph provides a linguistic framework in which to describe an information model of design objects and processes in a discrete manufacturing environment. The author gives a theoretically sound and practically useful foundation for the model by means of a technical and philosophical analysis of past and current methods. The book features: - A comprehensive list of CAD database requirements, - Use of the full capacity of first order predicate logic, - Formalization of design requirements as a schema or formal theory and definition of the realization as an extensional database or interpretation, - The dynamic process of design conceived as a series of evolving interpretations of a given formal theory. The key novelty in the book is the definition of a formal language for describing both the static and dynamic aspects of design within the setting of first order predicate logic. The book provides a theoretically well-founded and practically powerful conceptual basis on which a wide range of CAD systems can be developed in a methodical way.

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This thorough and comprehensive monograph provides a linguistic framework in which to describe an information model of design objects and processes in a discrete manufacturing environment. The author gives a theoretically sound and practically useful foundation for the model by means of a technical and philosophical analysis of past and current methods. The book features: - A comprehensive list of CAD database requirements, - Use of the full capacity of first order predicate logic, - Formalization of design requirements as a schema or formal theory and definition of the realization as an extensional database or interpretation, - The dynamic process of design conceived as a series of evolving interpretations of a given formal theory. The key novelty in the book is the definition of a formal language for describing both the static and dynamic aspects of design within the setting of first order predicate logic. The book provides a theoretically well-founded and practically powerful conceptual basis on which a wide range of CAD systems can be developed in a methodical way.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-x
Introduction....Pages 1-20
Requirements of CAD Databases....Pages 21-46
Criticism of Past and Current Data Models....Pages 47-93
First Order Theory and Its Interpretation....Pages 94-110
Criticism of Logical Approaches....Pages 111-162
Philosophical Discussions....Pages 163-195
The Fundamental Structure of the Design Object Model....Pages 196-222
The Model Description Language (MDL)....Pages 223-254
Modeling the Design Process....Pages 255-303
Implementation and Remaining Problems....Pages 304-320
Back Matter....Pages 321-330

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This thorough and comprehensive monograph provides a linguistic framework in which to describe an information model of design objects and processes in a discrete manufacturing environment. The author gives a theoretically sound and practically useful foundation for the model by means of a technical and philosophical analysis of past and current methods. The book features: - A comprehensive list of CAD database requirements, - Use of the full capacity of first order predicate logic, - Formalization of design requirements as a schema or formal theory and definition of the realization as an extensional database or interpretation, - The dynamic process of design conceived as a series of evolving interpretations of a given formal theory. The key novelty in the book is the definition of a formal language for describing both the static and dynamic aspects of design within the setting of first order predicate logic. The book provides a theoretically well-founded and practically powerful conceptual basis on which a wide range of CAD systems can be developed in a methodical way.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-x
Introduction....Pages 1-20
Requirements of CAD Databases....Pages 21-46
Criticism of Past and Current Data Models....Pages 47-93
First Order Theory and Its Interpretation....Pages 94-110
Criticism of Logical Approaches....Pages 111-162
Philosophical Discussions....Pages 163-195
The Fundamental Structure of the Design Object Model....Pages 196-222
The Model Description Language (MDL)....Pages 223-254
Modeling the Design Process....Pages 255-303
Implementation and Remaining Problems....Pages 304-320
Back Matter....Pages 321-330
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