A new Design Method based on Functions and Tolerance Specifications for Product Modelling

One of the major aims for aerospace industry is to manage geometrical variations during assembly process and product lifecycle. Since about ten years, new design methods have been proposed to consider early functionalities and tolerance specifications but no one clearly integrates the product modelling stage. To handle assemblies with thousands of parts with many functional requirements, we have defined a functional design method that early helps to identify and analyse functional geometrical entities and tolerance specifications. The proposed method integrates GASAP, a new approach for modelling as soon as possible parts, assembly and tolerance specifications in a CAD system. The method is supported by GAIA, a new software tool built on assembly-nested graphs.