The engineering data of a large enterprise is typically distributed over a wide area and archived in a variety of databases and file systems. Access to such information is crucial to a team member, particularly in a concurrent engineering setting. However, this is not easy, because (1) a model of the relevant information is not available, and (2) there is no simple way to access the information without being knowledgeable about various computer data formats, file systems, and networks. We have developed a system called the Information Sharing System (ISS) to enable access to diverse and distributed information within a corporation. Such data could be stored in different repositories such as databases and file systems including those that contain multiple media. Our paper describes the methodology of the ISS, the details of the implementation and extensions planned for the future.

The various approaches proposed to provide communication between CAD systems and process planning systems share the major problem that, due to geometric interactions among features, there may be several equally valid sets of manufacturable features describing the same part, and different sets of features may differ in their manufacturability. Thus, to produce a good process plan-or, in some cases, any plan at ll-it may be necessary to interpret the part as a different set of features than the one initially obtained from the CAD model. This is addressed using an algebra of features. Given a set of features describing a machinable part, other equally valid interpretations of the part can be produced by performing operations in the algebra. This will enable automated process planning systems to examine these interpretations in order to see which one is most appropriate for use in manufacturing. The feature algebra has been implemented for a restricted domain and integrated with the Protosolid solid modeling system and the EFHA process planning system.>