Designer's Workbench: a tool to assist in the capture and utilization of design knowledge

Abstract

In most cases, the result of a design activity is only the final detailed design of a desired object. The knowledge utilized while developing the design for an object is discarded after the design has been completed. Recently, researchers have begun to focus more attention to the issue of keeping this design knowledge. The process of acquiring and representing this knowledge is generally referred to as design knowledge capture. To address the knowledge capture problem, we are developing the Designer's Workbench which will assist in the design of complex objects. The Designer's Workbench uses the theory of plausible designs with a few extensions to capture a significant amount of design process knowledge. The extensions serve to make retention of the remaining design process knowledge easier. The physical knowledge associated with a design is represented through the use of CAD tools. The function of an object is represented at a high level. Behavioral knowledge can be represented using a causal network together with the associated temporal constraints. We provide a number of methods to access a design experience once it is stored in the memory. Overall we believe that the system is capable of capturing a good amount of design knowledge.