Product life-cycle assistant

Computer-based design evolution capture in a multi-disciplinary project environment remains a difficult problem. This paper describes a prototype, ProMem (Project Memory), that supports design evolution capture, visualization, and reuse in support of multi-disciplinary collaborative teamwork. The objective of ProMem is to assist the designers, engineers, contractors, and operation maintenance people to create, and consume information and knowledge related to the product (e.g., building, car, etc.). ProMem accommodates and integrates many perspectives within an Architecture/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) enterprise. ProMem is distinguished from the state-of-the-art file-based document management systems and proposes a model-based and content-based approach to: augment shared CAD product models with the team's design intents, interests, and responsibilities, capture the design evolution of the artifact at different levels of detail, e.g., graphic objects, discipline perspective, and project level, visualize design evolution of graphic objects, discipline models, and overall project, and reuse graphic objects and discipline models from the project memory.