An Integrated Framework for Representing Design History

摘要

This paper addresses the problem of representing design history. Inparticular we describe a design information system that capturesthree different aspects of design history: exploration of designalternatives, reasons for design decisions and design constraints.These three aspects of design history are basically different and itis appropriate to represent them in different ways. An integrateddesign information system (IDIS) which supports the representation of these different aspects of design history is presented. Three casestudies which have been used to test the system at various stagesduring its development are presented. One of the components of thesystem, which uses the issue based representation, was tested usingan example from process engineering. The example helped us toidentify some of the strengths and weaknesses of that component. Thisevaluation also enabled us to formulate the principle of preservingtemporal integrity. A case study is also presented which tested theability of the system to retrospectively represent design informationthat is currently recorded in a design project. This case study alsohighlighted some of the problems with existing design documentationprocedures. In the final case study the system was used off-line torecord design information as it was generated. These case studiesfound that the system could represent the required information andprovided a methodology and semi-formal representation that helpedthe designers. Due to the success of these trials the system is nowbeing used by a team of researchers in an industrial setting toprovide the next level of testing.