Associations management and change propagation in the CAD assembly

Engineering changes (ECs) are a kind of changes and/or modifications in forms, fits, functions, materials or dimensions of products and its constituent components. ECs usually stimulate a series of downstream changes. Therefore multiple disciplines and responsibilities are involved in managing those changes. The management of ECs affects the agility of the product development process of the enterprise. But Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems are limited in supporting the multi disciplinary teamwork in engineering change management (especially when they are distributed in terms of location and time). So, in this context of engineering change management we establish our work concerning engineering change propagation from Part to Assembly. This research paper explain the CAD Management Model, which enable us to better manage the Digital Mockup (DMU) and propagate changes to the hole assembly after a modification that affects one of its component, that has been sent to a partner modified an then reinserted. The aim of this model is to easily and automatically propagate this change by creating certain necessary correspondences which aim to precise the targeted entities (that will be affected by the change propagation).