Towards Context-Sensitive Modeling Tools

During the design of industrial products, designers perform multiple switches between different contexts. Their task could be greatly facilitated by assisting them with constraints and/or parameters specific to the contexts they encounter. Preliminary considerations for the realisation of context-sensitive modeling tools are discussed in this paper. A number of shape contexts with their implications are analysed via a case study performed in a computer-aided industrial design environment. Critical aspects encountered during this study are presented and improved modeling tools based on shape contexts are discussed.