Abstract
Product development involves many experts collaborating to the same design goal. Every expert has his own formalisms and tools leading to a high heterogeneity of information systems supporting design activities. Interoperability became a major challenge to avoid information incompatibility along the product life cycle. To synchronise heterogeneous representations of product will be a major step to integrate expert activities. In this paper, the authors propose a meta-model framework to connect together heterogeneous design models. This meta-model framework is used to formalise possible interactions between heterogeneous representations. Interaction formalisation is considered as a key point to synchronise heterogeneous models and to provide more interoperability between various computer assisted systems. The synchronisation loop is also presented as a major sequence of activities to manage collaborative design. Tools to support synchronisation are proposed. However, through a basic case study, authors highlight what can be automated and where human intervention is still expected.
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Notes
The proposed modification is exaggerated to clearly visualise the difference.
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The authors are involved in and supported by the European network of excellence, VRL-KCiP: Virtual Research Lab - Knowledge Community in Production.
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Bettaieb, S., Noël, F. A generic architecture to synchronise design models issued from heterogeneous business tools: towards more interoperability between design expertises. Engineering with Computers 24, 27–41 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-007-0064-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-007-0064-z