Mechanical CAE system design databases

Current mechanical CAE systems consist of suites of application programs, with mechanisms for passing geometric data between the various programs, and with a conventional database responsible for managing the mass of design files created and maintained by these programs. As there can be substantial data redundancy in such systems, the user must take responsibility for the integrity of the data by ensuring that changes are correctly rippled through each of the application programs. This paper reviews current practice, and considers ways in which CAE systems might develop to relieve users of this burden.