What if? Exploring the consequences of design and performance decisions in computer-aided design

A fundamental part of design is the process of prediction and postulation. A designer attempts to predict the performance consequences of his design decisions and postulate the design decisions which will lead to desired performance results. This paper describes a formalised methodology in computer-aided design which provides a framework for exploring such design and performance relationships for multi-variable multi-objective problems. The concept of inverse goal programming is introduced as a means of operating on the Pareto set to identify a subset of acceptable design solutions. An example of this approach applied to the design of multi-functional materials is presented in detail.