Conceptual Data Models for Engineering Information Modeling and Formal Transformation of EER and EXPRESS-G

Nowadays computer-based information systems have become the nerve center of current manufacturing systems. The requirement on engineering information modeling is hereby potential [8]. Viewed from database systems, engineering information modeling can be identified at two levels: conceptual data modeling and logical database modeling, which result in conceptual data models and logical database models respectively. Engineering information modeling generally starts from conceptual data models which are then mapped into logical database models. Since conceptual data models can capture and represent richer and more complex semantics in engineering applications at a high abstract level, much attention has been paid to the conceptual data modeling of engineering information and some conceptual data models have been used for this purpose, e.g., ER/EER [3], IDEF1X [5], and EXPRESS [9].