Description and Applications of an Object-Oriented Model PDM

Most industrial applications in the domains of CAD/CAM/CASE, KBS/DBS as well as that of robotics need to handle a large volume of information whether knowledge or data. In general, these applications require the representation of complex data elements as well as complex relationships among them. Users in these environments have found traditional technology inadequate in terms of flexibility, modeling power and efficiency. Thus, it becomes necessary to develop environments capable of supporting the various paradigms used in large projects. Such environments require a good object representation, efficient programming features, adequate mechanisms for storage and concurrence control and good communications with other software systems. This paper presents the main features of an object-oriented representation model PDM (Property Driven Model) and its implementations. An example is presented for showing the application of the PDM model and the object-oriented programming environment MOSS in the field of mechanical CAD.