A Multi-layered Modeling Architecture for Virtual Design

The design process of new products is time consuming, requires the collaboration and synchronization of activities performed by various experts having different competences and roles, and is performed using different tools and different product representations, which make the process inefficient. In order to improve the performances of the overall product design process, it would be beneficial the availability of computer-aided tools supporting conceptual design and analysis activities within an integrated environment based on a multi-disciplinary model paradigm. The paper presents an environment named PUODARSI that integrates tools for shape modeling with tools for structural and fluid-dynamics analysis. The integration is based on shared data models so that modeling and analysis activities can be performed consistently and in a close loop.