Function-to-Form Mapping: Model, Representation and Applications in Design Synthesis

Published

August 1, 2000

Author(s)

Sudarsan Rachuri

Abstract

Design of a new artifact begins with incomplete knowledge about the final product and the design evolves as it progresses from the conceptual design stage to a more detailed design. In this paper, an effort has been made to give a structural framework, through a set of generic definitions, to product specification, functional representation, artifact representation, artifact behavior and tolerance representation. A design synthesis process has been proposed for evolution of a product from the product specification. The proposed design synthesis method is a mapping from the functional requirements to artifacts, with multi-stage constrained optimization during stages of design evolution. Provisions are kept to augment and/or modify the product specification and domain knowledge during stages of development to guide the design process. Physical and structural details of an artifact are captured as abstract sketches during conceptual design stage and as CSG/B-Rep solid models during the detailed design evaluation stages. An example artifact library has been created to show the effectiveness of the proposed design synthesis process with a simple design element. An overall design scheme has been presented.

Citation

CAD/CAM Journal

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Boundary Representation (B-Rep), CAD, conceptual design, Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), Design synthesis, function-to-form mapping, object-orient ed representation

Citation

Rachuri, S. (2000), Function-to-Form Mapping: Model, Representation and Applications in Design Synthesis, CAD/CAM Journal, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=821723 (Accessed May 2, 2026)

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