Extending design automation by integrating external services for product design

Industry 4.0 aims at the promotion of design and manufacture automation to provide customized products. Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) is seen as a competitive way to realise design automation. This paper first introduces the Methodology and software tools Oriented to Knowledge-Based engineering Application (MOKA) method to develop an KBE application integrated with external calculators. Then a simple case of the wood-to-wood connection with different fasteners providing the connection capacity is demonstrated, showing the advantages to establish a model in parametric method integrated with external services. Meanwhile, this case shows the shortcomings of the integration of the current tools representing knowledge in different frameworks. Then a potential better way to integrate engineering knowledge is discussed.