A Database Management Approach to CAD/CAM Systems Integration

Facilitating the communication between different CAD/CAM systems is rapidly becoming an important issue, as more such systems reach the market. A solution to the communication problem can be found if it is considered part of the more general problem of managing the complex information associated with the representation of physical artifacts and environments in the memory of computers, thereby accounting for the operators that are used for accessing the data as well as the data itself. Database management systems have provided powerful solutions to information management problems in a variety of disciplines and enjoy a broad and rigorous research foundation. If the techniques, methods and systems that were developed for database management could be utilized for CAD/CAM integration, they would save a considerable duplication of effort, enhance the integrity of the data, and bring to bear the results and advances that have been achieved through a long period of hard work.