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The issue of interoperability in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry represents a challenge on a scale that spans across the project life cycle. This is predominant in the infrastructure sector that usually comprises a more versatile Operations and Maintenance (O&M) phase in comparison with the buildings sector. To this end, an important stage in the information life cycle is the asset information capture and validation during product procurement at the O&M phase. The water industry in the United Kingdom relies on Product Data Templates (PDTs) to fulfil such task, which is usually an error prone manual process. This paper presents an ongoing research, which investigates the application of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) for improving product data exchange during product procurement at the O&M phase for the water industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Therefore, focus group sessions with industry experts were held to discuss current inefficiencies and solution requirements. Based on these results, a semantic common model named Asset Specification Ontology (ASO) was developed to capture and validate asset information during product procurement at the O&M phase. The common model (ontology) is based on available technologies, namely Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL). This gives the advantage of semantically rich data which can be linked and queried in a meaningful way to facilitate the exchange and validation of water industry assets' data. The uniqueness of this paper is manifested in the issue it tackles, as efficient product procurement, and hence, data exchange in the water industry is an industrial challenge that is seldom researched. Results from the focus group sessions showed that information exchange within the UK water industry is impeded due to the lack of structured and semantic data. However, for a robust semantic interoperability, there needs to be a robust semantic data infrastructure, which would require semantic mappings from standards to product properties, from standards to other standards, and from standards to dictionaries. These conclusions were further supported by the common model, which was created from existing schemas, standards, and dictionaries. Generally, this paper recommends a common model/product library for phase-specific product data exchange in the water industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new design and manufacture paradigm, Cloud-Based Collaborative Design (CBCD) has motivated designers to outsource their product data and design computation onto the cloud service. Despite non-negligible benefits of CBCD, there are potential security threats for the outsourced product data, such as intellectual property, design intentions and private identity, which has become an interest point. This paper presents a novel secure product data exchange (PDE) in the processes of CBCD. Different from general cloud security mechanism, our method is content-based. We first show an outline of the collaborative scenario to describe the architecture of the proposed secure CBCD, in which a security mechanism is combined with the data exchange service to achieve secure PDE. Second, we present a novel grid-based geometric deformation method for the security mechanism with three processes: the original shapes of a source Computer Aided Design (CAD) model can be hidden by deforming the control grid; then the deformed grid can be exchanged to target system where a deformed target CAD model can be reconstructed; at last, the deformed target CAD model can be recovered to the original shape after recovering the deformed grid. Finally, typical CAD model tests demonstrate that our method can keep the sensitive information of source model and also maintain the same level of data exchange error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's increasingly competitive environment, firms are experiencing growing pressure to reduce the product development lead time to meet market expectations. In this paper, a Responsive Product Development System (RPDS), which is used to model the product development process and the components of the process with object technology, introduces a dynamic product information schema characterized by its ability to provide design practitioners with a product data exchange standard, thus transforming data to information and then knowledge. To validate the feasibility of the proposed schema, a case study has been conducted in a plastic product factory based on the suggested approach. Following feedback from these companies, a further review of the design of the proposed system has been conducted to ensure efficient information flow across the heterogeneous computing environment. A measure of loss to society associated with RPDS in product development time is also included as a system evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product data exchange requires exchanging geometrical shape data that may have to be represented differently in the sending and in the receiving system. Since the translation process thereby entailed can lead to errors, emerging exchange standards include numeric invariants computed from the shape. Agreement of these invariants in the sending and receiving system are then used to increase confidence in the translation process. In this paper we show that there are many classes of noncongruent solids for which all the invariants of volume, surface area, moments and products of inertia agree. Thus these quantities alone are insufficient to exclude many translation errors. We also consider whether the examples are realistic and find that in today’s constraint-based shape constructions the examples are not unlikely to occur. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Numerous proposals exist worldwide for the representation of data models and services for the main manufacturing activities. The ISO 10303 STEP has developed more than 40 standard Application Protocols for product data representation, and they reflect the consolidated expertise of major industrial worldwide specialists working together for more than 20 years, covering the principal product data management areas for the main industries. However these standards are focused on product data representation. A framework to enable them to interoperate at meta-model and knowledge levels permits the reuse of this existing expertise, extending its capabilities in complementary applications domains, like advanced modelling tools, knowledge management and the emergent semantic web technologies. This paper proposes a framework for the development, usage and extension of integrated data and knowledge models, using as a reference existent standard-based protocols. The work results from the research and development completed by the authors under the umbrella of international projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper describes an approach to interoperability in design projects that is based on computational agents customizing the representation of product data to individual design tools. The agents can augment their translator capabilities autonomously at runtime. This has the potential to lessen the need to manually pre-define an appropriate set of tool translators. The process of generating tailored product models uses an approach to organizing agent knowledge that limits computational complexity when large numbers of tools are involved. We report the implementation and evaluation of an agent-based system that demonstrates the fundamental features of mass customized interoperability. Results include an average reduction of manual work by 88% using this approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper describes the status of work aimed at extending the international standard ISO 10303 (STEP) to permit the exchange of parameterized feature-based models between different CAD systems, in terms of the constructional history of the models concerned. Such procedural models have the advantage of being easy to edit following an exchange, by contrast with the models that can be exchanged using current STEP methodology, which prove to be difficult or impossible to edit in the receiving system. The use of the approach described has already been demonstrated in the exchange of realistic procedural shape models of mechanical parts, and the paper includes a brief account of some of the tests performed and the projected benefits of the use of this extension of STEP technology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An increasing trend toward product development in a collaborative environment has resulted in the use of various software tools to enhance the product design. This requires a meaningful representation and exchange of product data semantics across different application domains. This paper proposes an ontology-based framework to enable such semantic interoperability. A standards-based approach is used to develop a Product Semantic Representation Language (PSRL). Formal description logic (DAML + OIL) is used to encode the PSRL. Mathematical logic and corresponding reasoning is used to determine semantic equivalences between an application ontology and the PSRL. The semantic equivalence matrix enables resolution of ambiguities created due to differences in syntaxes and meanings associated with terminologies in different application domains. Successful semantic interoperability will form the basis of seamless communication and thereby enable better integration of product development systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the informational requirements of rapid prototyping and layered manufacturing (RPLM). The study is motivated by the recent decision to embark on the development of a new Application Protocol for the international standard ISO 10303, specifically to handle layered manufacturing information.The most common industrial use of RPLM today is for rapid prototyping, but a wider view of it as a flexible fabrication technology is taken here, to allow for future developments. Its use in building functional metallic parts under computer control has already been demonstrated, and commercial RPLM machines for building production parts are already being marketed.The paper includes a survey of current and proposed data formats for communication between the various stages of the RPLM process. In comparing them, particular attention is given to the issue of extensibility to meet future needs. In this last respect, special emphasis is given to materials-related and other non-geometric information needed for fabricating multi-material objects and objects with graded material properties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Product data exchange and interfacing between different CAD/CAM systems are of great importance to the development of concurrent integrated design environments and computer integrated manufacturing systems. This paper presents a STEP-based method and system for concurrent integrated design and assembly planning. An integrated object model for mechanical systems and assemblies is first defined by a hierarchy of structure, geometry and feature. The structure is represented as a component-connector or joint multi-level graph with both hierarchical functional and assembly relations. These hierarchical relation models are then used for uniformly describing their causal relations both for assembly level and feature based single part level. The generic product assembly model is organized according to STEP, using mostly the entities of integrated resources and partly self-defined entities, which are necessary for design and assembly planning. Based on the generic product assembly model, STEP-based strategies and agent concepts are used for agent-based concurrent integration of design and assembly planning. A prototype system, consisting of a CAD system, a product modeling system, an assembly planning system, and an assembly evaluation system is developed, in which product data can be exchanged between these subsystems. Details about the implementation of the system are addressed. The integrated design and assembly planning system can support the introduction of a new product. The results of assembly planning are feedback to the stage of assembly design to improve on the design. A case study is carried out for assembly-oriented design of a gearbox, to illustrate the proposed approach and to validate the developed system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This short note demonstrates the use of standard for exchange of product data (STEP) for interfacing design to process planning via a compact feature recogniser. The methodology used in development of the interface (feature recogniser) makes use of both automatic feature-recognition and feature-based design technologies in order to combine their advantages, and the STEP for the non-problematic and full information exchange. Using the abilities of the STEP, a generic configuration scheme is developed in which the features are treated as a combination of faces to which geometrical and/or technical information is glued (associated). By this way, the designer is only forced to identify the functional parts of the features when designing the part, which may simplify the component design and result in the effective memory utilisation. The feature recogniser was implemented in C on a PC and tested on a large number of examples with positive results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper illustrates a product-modelling tool named Product Manager, aimed at supporting networks of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) collaborating in the design of a unique final product. SMEs are usually characterised by well-established knowledge on specific components but, usually, do not have internally all the capacities to develop the complete product and to lead the whole project, so for their nature they adopt co-design principles while maintaining a full autonomy. The presented Product Manager includes all and only those concepts pertaining to the description of the product whose design is in charge of the node and its lower level co-designers. Thus, the emphasis is given to the product specification, possibly by project reuse, and to the negotiation activity usually carried out to identify the right project partner and the final product configuration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Boeing has been working on the development and implementation of STEP AP 210 since its inception. Using a combination of internally funded activities, external government contracts and multi-company pilots, Boeing has developed prototype tools to utilize AP 210 and is poised to move these tools into production. This paper begins with a brief overview of STEP and AP 210. The status of available AP 210 vendor translators (data generators), along with viewers and analysis programs (data consumers) is covered. Discussion continues with present and planned usage of AP 210 in several companies with the primary emphasis on implementation at The Boeing Company. The document concludes with a summary of key points. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Product data exchange and sharing is an important issue for miscellaneous information systems. STEP-based product data exchange and sharing provides a useful mechanism for implementing concurrent engineering and promoting the realization of CALS' en vironment. This paper implements a pilot system for STEP-based PDE (Product Data Exchange) system based on the requirement of product data exchange between and within enterprises. The system incorporates engineering information in the design and manufactur ing stages and guarantees the consistency of the product data exchange and sharing. Complete development processes of systems, in cluding AAM (Application Activity Model), ARM (Application Reference Model), and AIM (Application Interpretation Model), are illustrated herein. AAM utilizing BPR (Business Process Reengineering) approach is employed to develop ARM, which is then mapped to AIM mod els from part 41, part 42, part 44, AP 203, AP 214 in STEP The system's database is based on the integrated AIM models in STEP to as sure the capability for product data exchange and sharing. The kernel data structure is a combination of engineering information and product-oriented definitions. The data from miscellaneous information systems, such as CAD/CAM, MRP/MRPII, ERP, and PDM, in the de sign and manufacturing phase of a product's life cycle can be exchanged using this system. This paper also employs STEP to present an integrated product-oriented data structure to manage engineering information from different information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A fundamental issue in concurrent engineering is sharing data among a vanety of commercially available computer-aided de sign, analysis, and manufacturing software tools. Geometry flaws often occur in the exchange of design data between dissimilar CAD systems and have multiplied with the ever-increasing complexity of product geometry. in recent years the international standard ISO 10303, STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data), has achieved a success rate of 95-98% in the exchange of design data. This paper demonstrates that a significant portion of these errors are the result of the different degrees of precision used by com mercial CAD systems and are often apparent as minute gaps ranging from 0.00001-0.1 mm. The consequences are micro geometry gaps that are not visible to the designer but influence the creation of the final geometry at the receiver's end. Research has found that these gaps can be directly linked to the incompatibility in the degrees of precision used by individual CAD systems to associate vertices and curves with related faces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The suitability of the Standard Data Access Interface (SDAI) as a basis for a collaborative modelling environment is evaluated through the development of a prototype implementation. Problems are reported and possible solutions suggested. A conclusion is formulated about the SDAI and recommendations concerning its future use are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]