Analysis of Selected IT Tools Supporting Eco-Design in the 3D CAD Environment

The concept of eco-design is an area of interest of many manufacturers. Its implementation provides a framework that allows companies to adapt to the requirements of sustainable development related to the design and manufacturing of environmentally-friendly products. Implementation of eco-design in the industry requires dedicated information technologies. Many types of software tools are offered which support eco-design, and the choice of the one which suits the user best is not easy. The paper describes an analysis of three selected IT tools dedicated to the environmental assessment of products, integrated with the 3D CAD environment. The analysis has been carried out on the basis of specially developed reference models of sets (assemblies) imitating small household appliances. The models have been designed to support the creation of various configurations of connections between elements (parts of the assembly). The study experiments consist in changing the configurations and observing how the changes affect the environmental parameters of the modelled structure. The results have been used to describe the scope of support offered by each of the tools under analysis and their suitability for the environmental assessment of products.