On the Management of Sharing Design, Knowledge

This paper presents the approach and results of a research project that develops an environment for sharing design knowledge. The project implements a design modelling approach that allows designers to capture design concepts into formally defined typologies. With these, designers can build flexible design models and have full control over definitions and structures used to represent design concepts. The presented research project uses this dynamic modelling approach in the development of Design Knowledge Servers that function in a network to provide a distributed multi-user environment for sharing design knowledge. Such a network serves the requirements of collaborative design and is useful for other purposes, such as publication of formalised product datasheets. The paper briefly provides the background of the knowledge modelling approach underlying this project and describes the design and implementation issues of the Design Knowledge Servers and the services they provide

Supporting collaboration design by type recognition and knowledge sharing

In collaborative design projects, designers are required to share and identify design knowledge, which is an aspect of design that can benefit significantly from formalisation of design knowledge. On the other hand, working with formalised design knowledge should not impede the creativity in design by restricting the design process and limiting the freedom of manipulating design information. The research project reported in this article provides an approach to design modelling that manifests a high level of flexibility and extensibility of the formalised design knowledge. The design process is supported in this approach by tools that help identify the design rationale through type recognition and by Internet-based services that allow designers to share design models and design knowledge in a well-structured manne

Feature Type Recognition – implementation of a recognizing feature manager

This paper reports the first phase of a research project to implement and apply Feature Type Recognition (FTR). This technology has many potential areas of application, such as case retrieval, product finding, translating models between schemas, and certain types of analysis. Feature Type Recognition is part of the Internet based design knowledge sharing system developed at the authors’ department. The system allows communication of highly abstract concepts as well as concrete data. Additionally, it supports a layered approach to modelling, which will facilitate standardisation efforts. Feature Type Recognition is the process of finding feature types that correspond to a specific feature instance. The paper shows how feature based modelling creates a foundation for feature type recognition. Additionally, it presents and discusses how the Recognizing Feature Manager has been implemented. Application of Feature Type Recognition to building product finding will take place in the second phase of the research project. However, the paper already discusses basic principles of how this can be don

Feature Type Recognition – implementation of a recognizing feature manager

This paper reports the first phase of a research project to implement and apply Feature Type Recognition (FTR). This technology has many potential areas of application, such as case retrieval, product finding, translating models between schemas, and certain types of analysis. Feature Type Recognition is part of the Internet based design knowledge sharing system developed at the authors’ department. The system allows communication of highly abstract concepts as well as concrete data. Additionally, it supports a layered approach to modelling, which will facilitate standardisation efforts. Feature Type Recognition is the process of finding feature types that correspond to a specific feature instance. The paper shows how feature based modelling creates a foundation for feature type recognition. Additionally, it presents and discusses how the Recognizing Feature Manager has been implemented. Application of Feature Type Recognition to building product finding will take place in the second phase of the research project. However, the paper already discusses basic principles of how this can be don

An Information Model for Collaboration in the Construction Industry

Collaborative work is an essential ingredient for success in the construction industry. With the advancements of capabilities of information technologies and communication infrastructures, the effective utilisation of these technologies has become very important and strongly affects business processes that have long followed traditional paths. This article describes the main characteristics of the concept-modelling framework that is developed in the DesKs project. Concept modelling gives end-users access to the schema of design models and provides a high level of flexibility for modelling. To support collaborative work, it provides remote data access and allows users to share resources that, instead of being exchanged or stored centrally, remain active at their source in tight relation with business processes. The main technical aspects of the concept-modelling framework are discussed. Object version control and timeline management of revisions of objects are used to increase the integrity between objects that are accessed and edited by multiple users across a network

Serving building product information with design knowledge servers

Building product information is a valuable resource for building design, but the number of different producers and products makes it hard for a single person to keep informed of all available products. A solution to this problem would be computer-based product information repositories, from which designers could fetch up-to-date information. The Design Knowledge Server (DesKs) approach has properties that make it function as such a product information repository. Compared to other approaches, it provides enhanced functionality that will benefit especially architects in early design phases. The paper introduces the main characteristics of DesKs and describes the way design information is modelled in this approach. It focuses on how a technology called Feature Type Recognition (FTR), which is part of this development, can be used to find product information

Communicating Concepts for Shared Understanding : A Multi-Agent Approach

Capturing and sharing design concepts is necessary if we want to support the design process by means of Information & Communication Technology (ICT). Standardized concepts are important for support at the end of the design process when designs need to conform to set standards and norms, and in order to enable communication, but are less useful in the early design stages. We propose an approach that takes into account a more developmental attitude that will be better suited for design support and the sharing of design concepts. In this approach, design concepts are formalised by means of a technology called concept modelling. Capturing and exchange of concepts are based on a multi-agent approach. The whole of concepts that are used in a domain or for a design task can be considered a design ontology. In this paper we outline the motivations for the research, outline the basic approach in the research work, and identify the major challenges and research problems that need to be tackled

VR-DIS Research Programme Design Systems group

This paper presents a summary of all on-going projects within the VR-DIS research programme at Eindhoven University of Technology