3D Geometric Databases For Mechanical Engineering

3D geometric data bases for mechanical parts and assemblies are a new and promising development in mechanical engineering. 3D data bases for sculptured surfaces of airplanes and automobiles have been used for many years, but the possibility of a data base containing the complete 3D description of all the parts of an airplane, car, printer or typewriter, and the impact it could have on the entire design / develop / manufacture / maintain product cycle is motivation for an increasing amount of work in 3D geometric data base applications, both inside and outside IBM. This paper examines 1) uses of these data bases in the 4 above mentioned product cycle areas and the benefits (reduction of duplication of effort, shorter lead times, better communication and understanding, etc.) resulting from the data base, 2) information content, file structure, file size and the integration of geometric and non-geometric data and 3) ways people want to access the data.