Using topic maps to describe engineering knowledge and geometry of CAD-designed products

In the early development phase, it is necessary to design products as realistically as possible and to clarify whether the basic requirements can be fulfilled or not. In this phase, the development costs and the subsequent production costs are influenced to a considerable extent. In addition to the geometry definition, it is also necessary to acquire the complete engineering knowledge and to make it available to the designer. With today's CAD programs, it is not possible to get a sufficient overview of both the geometric relationships and their linkage with the engineering knowledge. In this paper, we examine the extent to which topic maps can be used to describe both the geometry as well as the design rules. This approach allows to reduce the development time and costs.