A maintainability analysis visualization system and its development under the AutoCAD environment

Maintainability is an important product characteristic, and is also a design parameter. Current maintainability methods do not support concurrent engineering. This paper analyzes the deficiencies of existing maintainability technologies, and introduces the concept of maintainability analysis visualization. After the description of the infrastructure of maintainability analysis visualization system, disassembly sequence determination and tool selection are discussed in detail. The system is developed under the AutoCAD environment. Because the system is integrated into AutoCAD, designers can analyze their product design from the viewpoint of easy maintenance concurrently.