Working With Multiple Representations in a Concurrent Design System

The essence of concurrent engineering is to address multiple concerns (e.g., function, geometry, manufacturing) as a design evolves rather than waiting until the geometry of the design is complete. To support concurrent engineering a computational system must therefore be able to work with multiple representations and to keep them consistent. We have built environments for the design of assemblies and machined components in a prototype concurrent design system called Next-Cut and we use these environments to illustrate how such capabilities can be achieved. We discuss the strengths and limitations of the approach taken in Next-Cut and conclude with a discussion of directions for future work.