Multidisciplinary design automation – a conceptual framework for working with product model extensions

Design automation can be used to support efficient information handling and knowledge processing in computer-based product modelling, as well as make possible new design exploration and optimisation capabilities. To be able to utilise and manage design automation systems over time, it is important to understand how the disciplinary methods and models are dependent on each other through the product model constituents and then how these relations should be built to support maintenance, leveraging and future reuse. Awareness of the concrete representation of relations could support the system's traceability and transparency, and depending on the chosen technique, comprehension and extendability can be affected. This paper presents a conceptual framework for how a set of product model constituents are, can and to some extent, should be extended to define relations in multidisciplinary design automation systems.