Framework for integration of design and knowledge-based environments

Many tasks in design through manufacturing sequence for discrete mechanical parts, such as process selection, manufacturability assessment, cost estimation, and process planning, require decision-making based on semantic descriptions of part geometries, which are not supported in current CAD/CAM systems. Such capabilities can be obtained through the integration of a CAD/CAM system with a knowledge-based system (KBS) using a part representation scheme suitable for reasoning. Due to the incompatibility of representations between geometry and knowledge, most of the current related work are somewhat `interfaced' rather than `integrated'. And since information for defining a part varies from application to application, providing an effective link between design and various knowledge-based applications is a challenge for CAD/KBS integration. The objective of this research is to develop a framework for the full integration of a design environment and a knowledge-based environment using object-oriented methodology to support tasks such as manufacturability assessment, and process planning.