International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED 07 - Presentation of Engineering Design Related Knowledge - User-Centered Approach

Oct 23, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr

Presentation of engineering design related knowledge requires a shift from implicit to explicit documentation to support both human understanding and machine compatibility. Increasing task complexity and collaborative engineering demand an approach that communicates early design-process outputs. This paper proposes a user-centered visualization method during the conceptual design phase using computer-aided sketching of principle solutions, storing prescriptive sketch content with an appropriate symbol language and non-rigid semantics for product-data representation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

1 Introduction

2 Properies of Designs and Documentation

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN, ICEDí07 28-31 AUGUST 2007, CITE DES SCIENCES ET DE L'INDUSTRIE, PARIS, FRANCE PRESENTATION OF ENGINEERING DESIGN RELATED KNOWLEDGE Jˆrg Feldhusen1, Johannes Lemburg1 1 RWTH Aachen University ABSTRACT The presentation of engineering design related knowledge has a long time history by technical documentation particularly technical drawing and technical illustration. The complexity of the tasks to solve and the sharing of knowledge within collaborative engineering increase the need to present the output of the early steps of the design process in a human and computer compatible way. The assistance of computers within the concept phase of product development has until now been limited to mere data management. This paper depicts a user centred approach to visualize design engineering related knowledge within the conceptual design phase by computer aided sketching of principle solutions. An approach is made to store the content of prescriptive sketches of principle solutions with a language of appropriate symbols connected by a well defined but not rigid semantic. By this the outcome of the conceptual design phase can be represented by an object-oriented kind of product-data within product management systems. Keywords: implicit knowledge, collaborative engineering, mental model, computer aided sketching, prescriptive sketches. 1 INTRODUCTION The presentation of engineering design related knowledge aims to push the frontier from implicit towards explicit knowledge to achieve a higher quality of documentation and set the basis for more complex engineering tasks challenging companies and educational organizations. Several pushing and pulling factors cause the need to develop a more standardized, machine and human compatible way to deal with highly abstract expert knowledge as it is crucial to develop innovative products [1], [2] . Pulling factors are the rising complexity of the tasks to solve and the specialization of the participating disciplines. The complexity of the tasks is on the one hand founded in the amount of constraints associated with the products to be developed and on the other hand the networking of collaborative engineering. Specialization is one answer to the exploding amount of human knowledge. This development can also be seen within the discipline of engineering design and enhances the need to share generated knowledge. Pushing factors are the development of increasingly powerful hard- and software and newest discoveries of disciplines as knowledge management and scientific visualization. The ongoing price decline of hardware, which is able to run complex programs, is the basis for introducing specialized expert knowledge in small and medium-sized enterprises. These programs have to be of high usability to be capable to transfer the knowledge to the user. The research of scientific visualization and humancomputer interaction shows the potential to handle complex and abstract knowledge of engineering design in a user friendly way. 2 PROPERIES OF DESIGNS AND DOCUMENTATION How does a design engineer explore a given machine? Is it possible to understand a design just by its documentation? In fact the documentation lacks some properties that the generated design in reality features. These properties, like rattling, squeaking or friction, are of a kind that reveals only under operating conditions. Thatís why an experienced design engineer will have a look at the machine itself, fiddle about it and maybe disassemble to conceive it. Some functions of parts can only be understood with the functional interplay of parts in the assembly in mind but others can only been seen ICEDí07/296 1 in combination of the real design with the documentation. For example missing or unwanted features can only be detected this way because the technical documentation describes an intended ideal state of the design that never will occur in reality. This interplay of do

FAQs

Why is presenting engineering design knowledge important in engineering design documentation?

It aims to move knowledge from implicit to explicit form, enabling higher-quality documentation and supporting more complex engineering tasks in companies and educational organizations.

What problem does the paper address regarding knowledge sharing in collaborative engineering?

The complexity of tasks and the need to share knowledge require a more standardized, machine- and human-compatible way to represent early design-process outputs.

How does the proposed approach visualize and store design knowledge?

It uses user-centered computer-aided sketching of principle solutions and stores prescriptive sketch content using a symbol language linked by a well-defined but not rigid semantic structure.

Oct 23, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr