(omput & (iraphics Vol. 7. No 2. pp. 125 141. 1983 (~)97 8493 83 S3 (HI + .t~ Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Lid Computers and Graphics in Mechanical Engineering INTEGRATION OF THE DESIGN AND MANUFACTURE PLANNING PROCESS BASED ON A CAD SYSTEM WITH A TECHNOLOGY ORIENTED VOLUME MODEL H. GRABOWSKI and R. ANDERL Lehrstuhl fiir Rechneranwendung in Planung und Konstruktion, University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe. West Germany (Received 21 April 1983) Abstract--The integration of computer aided production processes becomes more and more important. An integrated application includes a potential to pass the production process more economically. This contribution represents a concept for integration of design and manufacture planning based on computer internal models. Another aspect deals with the use of computer internal models for the simulation of manufacture operations to generate planning data. I. INTRODUCTION Today computer systems are used to support different parts of production processes. Terms like CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAP (Computer Aided Planning), CAM (Computer Aided Manu- facturing) or CAQ (Computer Aided Quality Assur- ance) have been accepted and indicate the field of application. Results and experiences with computer applications point to the trend to use a big potential of rationalization by integrating computer applica- tions into the design process. Integration of computer applications aims at a digital information flow for --avoidance of repeated input of existing data; --reduction of errors; --reduction of control and test procedures; --fast and complete availability of product and production information; --speeding up the processing of orders; --better product quality. To achieve the integration of computer aided applica- tions problems of the information flow and of the operational organisation have to be solved. To anal- yse the information flow, relevant sets of information, semantical contents and interfaces for exchange of information have to be determined. Other questions refer to the operational organisation of a company, for example the liability for data (i.e. technical draw- ings or data of the exchanged computer internal models) and the responsbility for generated data (i.e. the responsibility for generation and controlling data). Information has to be available about the origin of data and the responsibility for later modifications. Aspects for an integrated processing of orders can be structured as shown in Fig. 1. The premise for a successful integrated computer aided processing of data is, that the result of an activity (for example the technical solution as the result of design process) contains all the information and its semantical content needed by the following activities. CAD/CAM systems which make efforts to reach this integration, mostly offer the description of a production part, in the same way used within a technical drawing. Data of technology like the sur- face finish, tolerances, etc. have to be added for the planning of the production by a dialogue oriented input or a programming language. This additional technology information being available, the gener- ation of production sheets Land NC-data can be started. To improve the integration and to model the whole production process, DICAD, a dialogue oriented integrated CAD system is developed by the Institut Ffir Rechneranwendung in Planunung und Kon- struktion at the University of Karlsruhe. DICAD is characterized by a side-by -side existence of tech- nological data, its semantical content and a computer internal volume model of the product. The goal is to make all the data generated in the design process available for other production processes. Particularly the following activities will be supported by DICAD: --Generation of production sheets by a simulation of the production with computer internal models. ---Generation of NC-data based on computer in- ternal models. ---Generation of robot control data by a simu- lation of the assembly with computer internal models. The basic idea of DICAD is that all generated data is stored in computer internal models. There are two considerations: --to model the geometry of a production part by employing a volume model; --to model non geometrical data without loosing the data semantics. There are to be several related models, interconnected by transformation rules. The following contribution shows how DICAD is used in the design process for detailing a production part and how an aspect of production engineering, the generation of NC-data is integrated. CAG Vol. 7, No. 2--B 125