A Methodology for Linking Symbolic and Graphical Models for Collaborative Engineering.

Abstract : The demand for flexible and efficient design of new facilities and the maintenance of existing facilities has led to a new breed of tools for use by architects and engineers. These tools provide a symbolic model of the facility on which to base decisions and recommendations using knowledge and rules that are determined by domain experts within a particular field. However, these tools do not provide an easily understood graphical representation of the design as do traditional Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) systems. The objective of this research was the design and implementation of a methodology to allow efficient and reliable bidirectional communication between a rule-based analysis system and a CAD system. This methodology enables a symbolic model in the analysis system to be represented and manipulated from within the CAD system. This report discusses the design decisions that were made during system research and development. It describes the methodology implemented and gives an example of its use. An appendix contains a list of functions that were implemented and used within the system.