Trends towards product modelling

The development in CAD, CAM, and other CA-Technologies is based on single steps in the product development. Those systems are widely available and used in industry today. In the last years the integration of these steps got more and more important to reduce the cycle time in product design and to reduce the error frequency in data transmission by using electronic data exchange. Because of these needs the product life cycle as a whole became more important. In addition to geometric modelling, product modelling based on an integrated data model has to be developed. Such a product model and its parameters are described in the following chapter. The standardization activities within ISO for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) are specifiying such a model to allow data exchange between different components in the product development process. These aspects lead to new architectures for CAD and CIM systems, open for integration with other components, as shown in chapter 4. Also the dist ribution of those systems will be better supported by modularisation and network links between the components. Finally a perspective is given towards Enterprise Modelling and Integration. (IGD)