Content Orientated Identification of Changed Objects During the Definition of Product Representations

Change of product engineering for virtual space has resulted ability of free and unlimited definition of engineering objects and their relationships in product models. However, the decision maker is still the engineer who needs additional computer assistance at revealing effects of a new or changed engineering object on existing engineering objects. Because high number of model entities and their relationships has to be surveyed, intelligent assistance of decisions from modeling procedures is unavoidable. A method is introduced in this paper as a possible solution for intelligent assistance of decisions on engineering objects considering their impacts on other engineering objects. The authors applied the method of description of information content as an extension of the present modeling in industrial product lifecycle management systems. In this paper, information content based modeling is introduced and an emphasis is placed on explanations to connect the new proposed model with the presently applied and well-proved product model. First, relevant issues in virtual space based engineering are discussed. Following this, a new concept is introduced for the processing of dependencies in product model. Next, information content as a new component of product model is outlined in the context of classical data based product model. Finally, implementation of the proposed modeling as an extension to product lifecycle management systems is explained.