An XML-based digital mock-up system for heterogeneous assembly

초록

Digital Mock-Up(DMU) system, a tool to build a virtual mock-up in the design stage, has been used to prevent interferences and mismatches during precision design processes. Using the virtual assembly tool, engineers are able to design precision and interference free parts without making physical mock-ups. Instead of a single CAD source, several CAD systems are used to design a complex product in the distributed design environment. In this paper, a heterogeneous multi-CAD assembly method is proposed through an XML and the lightweight CAD file. XML data contains hierarchy of the heterogeneous multi-CAD assembly. The lightweight CAD file produced from various CAD files through ACIS kernel and InterOp includes not only mesh and B-Rep data, but also topological data. It is used to visualize CAD data and to verify dimensions. The developed system is executed on desktop computers. It does not require commercial CAD systems to visualize 3D assembly data. Assembly of heterogeneous models is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the developed DMU system on the Internet.