Product ontology screening and its application in variant design

A product ontology screening method which can be used in variant design is proposed. With the support of complete ontology view of product resources, the product functional requirement and structural characteristics are converted to demand constraints, which are used to screen product ontology. For different screening hierarchies and objects, different screening rules such as pattern matching, case matching combined with manual decision and auto matching on the basis of case-based reasoning are adopted. The semi-automatic screening method with human-computer cooperation has impressive effectiveness on the improvements of the accuracy of design schemes and the flexibility and efficiency of design process. Finally, a variant design supporting system for building door and window is developed, which proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the method.