A Generic Framework for the Integration of Mechanical and Electrical CAD Tools for Concurrent Design of Consumer Electronic Products

Abstract

Abstract Most consumer or commercial electronic products are electro-mechanical systems consisting of mechanical components such as structures, enclosures, driving systems and mechanisms, combined with electrical components such as printed circuit boards (PCBs), power supply, wires (harness) and switches. The design of such multidisciplinary products involves high coordination and cooperation between the two different engineering fields of mechanical and electrical design. However, in spite of the advancements of CAD tool development in design automation technology within each field, a gap still exists for good communication between the designers in these two fields during the course of the design. This gap makes the design process of such products time-consuming and error prone. This paper describes a research effort that facilitates multidisciplinary concurrent design for consumer electronic products. The focus is on how to integrate mechanical and electrical CAD tools into a more flexible and extensible concurrent design environment to share and communicate critical design information during the design process. A multidisciplinary concurrent design environment based on the CAD framework concept is described. Approaches for integrating the design data and information in such a multidisciplinary design environment are discussed. A prototyping system for the concurrent design of consumer electronic products is also presented.