Managing the Integrity of Design Data Generated by Multiple Applications: The Principle of Patching

The purpose of this work is to develop automatic methods of semantic integrity maintenance, in support of concurrent engineering. Semantic integrity relations in any final engineering design are built up incrementally, through the use of different computer applications. Here, the structure of these integrity relations are formalized for representation within a database. When changes to a design have to be made, they can invalidate integrity relations in other parts of the design. Formal methods are defined for identifying what data and integrity relations are invalidated by any change. Methods for making changes that minimize re-design are described and formalized. Opportunities for using semantic integrity to assess progress on a design are reviewed.