Design of a Software Platform to Support Manufacturing Enterprises Using 3D CAD Data

Received 15 October 2014; received in revised 3 November 2014; accepted 5 November 2014ABSTRACT Most manufacturing enterprises create CAD data as a result of the product/part design process;however, the CAD data is being utilized only for production activities. Besides the processesdirectly related to manufacturing such as design and production, the CAD data is an importantresource that can be used in variety of services (e.g., catalog production and production manu-als) for manufacturing enterprises. This study proposes a software platform that can support awide range of services for manufacturing companies in an efficient and productive way. Thesoftware platform was designed based on the functions identified by requirement analysis. Theplatform consists of four layers: data model layer to manage relevant data; library layer andcommon function layer to configure services; and application layer to install and run the soft-ware. Finally, this study evaluates the validity of the proposed platform architecture by apply-ing it to the digital catalog system. Key Words:Manufacturing Support Service, Software Platform Design, STEP-Based Data Model,3D-Based Digital Catalog