Attaching knowledge to product model for representation of human intent

In the globalized industry, product models are transferred between CAD/CAM systems. An engineer needs information about intention of the engineer who has created the model at a remote workstation. Present day geometric and form feature models of mechanical parts offer only restricted description of human intent. There are efforts to improve models in this direction. The authors propose a methodology for attaching information and knowledge to geometric and form feature models for improving communication between product designer and production engineer. The paper is organized as follows. First, product modeling and production planning procedures are analyzed from the point of view of need for auxiliary model information to be transferred between product designers and manufacturing engineers. Next, product models and their information description capabilities are explained and possibility for description of designer intent and experience in these models are presented. Following this, representation and processing of human intents are described. Finally characteristics and advantages of communication between engineers using the extended models are concluded