A study for neutral format to exchange and reuse engineering knowledge in KBE applications

In the discipline of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), we propose a study for a possible solution to reuse pieces of engineering knowledge that have been already represented in other software tools. Those tools are mainly programs or CAD files, and are usually stored in companies' repositories (databases and PLM systems among the others). For reusing, we mean the possibility of replicating tout-court a specific set of rules, geometry and user interfaces in different projects, software and even application field. In particular, we propose the adoption of a tailored language based on XML syntax, whose taxonomy allows describing the most common aspects of the engineering design process: (1) product architecture descriptions, with their parts relations and design rules; (2) design process descriptions, with the interactions between company's knowledge and products. Thus we propose the Rules Interchange Format (RIF) file to fulfil this achievement. The RIF file is the main output of a specific Work Package in the context of the "LinkedDesign" European Commission founded project. It is represented by an XML schema where we translated and joined together two of the most common knowledge formalization modelling languages into XML tags: an UML Class Diagram based pattern, to describe products architectures; an IDEF0 Diagram based pattern, to describe design processes. In order to include the description of design automation aspects, to be used with KBE systems, we enriched the mentioned patterns introducing special tags for managing product configuration rules and connections interfaces with CAD tools and PLM.