The research of tool integration technology for complex products’ collaborative simulation platform

The collaborative simulation for complex products needs seamless integration of multi-discipline tool software on collaborative simulation platform. However, many kinds of tool software do not provide application programming interface (API), which is vital for collaborative simulation. Under the technical framework of complex productspsila collaborative simulation platform, the paper proposes three methods to realize tool software packaging when the tool software does not provide API. They are the method of calling solver directly, the method of tool interface module and that of secondary integration. The method of calling solver directly realizes interaction between tool software and platform by seeking a way to call solver from background directly; the method of tool interface module adds user defined module to the model of tool software as a way for the interaction between tool software and the outside. The two methods are all dedicated to constructing a user defined uniform tool engine interface for the platform to call. The method of secondary integration realizes integration indirectly by using tool software which has been integrated to the platform. The paper also presents the process of realization of the three methods by giving an example of integrating MSC EASY5 tool software. By doing so, we prove their correctness and analyze their pros and cons.