Design Process Automation Support through Knowledge Base Engineering

—This paper shows the methodology of developing an application of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) to automate the task of repetitive designs, while reusing and modifying the existing designs in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) environment. The presented work describes the procedure for developing KBE tools for standard parametric mechanical /engineering parts and assemblies. With the proposed methodology and the developed KBE tool, it is possible to achieve direct interaction between the user and the geometric model so as to simplify the design process so as to avoid redesign and remodeling of the product. The proposed methodology was implemented through Knowledge Fusion (KF), a Siemens NX module. I. INTRODUCTION HE main purpose of the 'Design' is to create things which will satisfy certain requirements of a user in an innovative way. Designer spends most of their time in understanding the existing designs and dealing with the challenges associated with the modifications and improvements in the designs. Lots of engineering man hours is consumed doing repetitive tasks of remodeling the existing designs. Knowledge Base Engineering (KBE) allows automation of repetitive design tasks while capturing, retaining and re-using the design knowledge [1]. KBE is a system or process which collects stores and organizes this knowledge and makes it available in the reusable form by providing computational support to the design process. The need of KBE arouse due to problems in current knowledge structure, which is disorganized. Existing databases, designs, thumb rules, etc. are not maintained in order, which makes the reusability difficult. Current knowledge structure is not secure also, as the databases that are not prepared centrally are susceptible to changes by other designers and loose reliability. Capturing knowledge is essential, but capturing the knowledge that is not necessary would lead to confusion and decrease effective reusability.