Cambridge Engineering Design Centre
Department of Engineering Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 1PZ
E-mail: [email protected] Web: www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1223 332742 Fax: +44 (0)1223 332662
Extending Design Rationale To
Capture An Integrated Design
Information Space
Research Question
• How can the conduct, inputs and outputs of
human engineering design activities be
captured at the time of execution, and
stored in an integrated information space?
– How can we capture :
the whats ...
Schedule
• The Design Rationale editor (DRed)
– Conceptual design capture example – Current state of deployment in industry
– Question: can the applicability of DRed be extended from conceptual design into embodiment and detailing?
• Solution approach: implement bidirectional hyperlinking and image capture to annotate external documents
– Case study of use of DRed together with a spreadsheet application to support embodiment design
– Show linkage to 3D CAD and PLM to create integrated design information space
The Design Rationale editor (DRed)
• Design capture software based on
– Simple graph structured documents
– Each document is stored as an individual file – A modified and extended IBIS model
– Bidirectional hyperlinking between documents
– Researched and implemented in close collaboration with designers in Rolls-Royce
– Early results presented at Stockholm ICED 2003 – Has since been adopted as a standard tool in the
Design rationale capture example
• Example comes from Internal Gear Box
design of a new gas turbine engine
• Top Level Issue
– How to improve oil scavenge as compared
Issue: Open
No hidden information, easy to scan and browse
All elements have alternative statuses, easily changed
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Changes of status capture decisions
Rejection decisions captured
Follow arrows for knock-on effects
Answer rejected in response to
Tunnel links enable large, connected rationales to be distributed legibly
Deployment of DRed in Rolls-Royce
• Recommended by the Design Process
Council
• Around 600 engineers trained in DRed in
Derby, Bristol, Dahlewitz and Montreal via 2½
hour course
• DRed is part of the PLM tool set – standard
on all Technical PCs – and is installed on a
further 250 PCs
• To date DRed has largely been used in:
– Early stages of design
Detailed Research Questions
• Embodiment design activities:
– How to capture parameter choices,
calculations, component selections, numerical
constraints:. and their dependencies?
– How to link this captured information space to
standard product models, in the form of 3D
parametric CAD files stored on PLM servers?
– What are the important user difficulties, and
what interface enhancements are necessary to
remove them, if engineers are to find this an
Bidirectional hyperlinking and image capture
• Extend file element functionality to be more like tunnel links into external documents
– Robust generically applicable annotation approach – Initial focus on Microsoft (MS) Office document types – Use standard MS Office bookmarks and hyperlinks
• Simple creation of bidirectionally hyperlinked file elements referencing any bookmarkable entity in target document
• Choice of document icon representation in DRed or an updateable image of the target
Embodiment design using DRed + Excel
• Full computational power of Excel now available in DRed without complicating DRed with new element types
• Updateable images in DRed of
– Single cell
– Range of cells – Equation objects – Drawing objects – Chart objects
• Images auto-cropped around “interesting” content on insertion into DRed
Example: Layshaft Sub-Assembly Design
• Video of Bath University Undergraduate
Design Exercise performed by Bath KIM
researchers (Matt, Lian and Mey)
– Performed using pencil and paper – Manual calculations
– Mixed paper and online handbooks + catalogues
Conclusions and Further Work
• Have demonstrated how DRed, used together with standard spreadsheet, CAD and PLM software might
allow practical capture of design activity as an integrated information space
• Implement further developments to DRed to improve usability and user benefit in performing and capturing design in this way
– Auto updating of captured images when source changes
– Automatically change state of tasks when input values change
• Conduct trials of live on-line capture using this approach in a case integrating both conceptual and embodiment design
