Building an ontology of CAD model information

Abstract

The purpose of this tutorial paper is twofold. Firstly it can serve as an introduction to CAD shape modeling in general. Secondly it can be read as an introduction-by-example to the concept of an ontology. In computer science, an ontology is a rigorous conceptual model of a specific domain. Such models are useful in various contexts such as advanced information retrieval, knowledge sharing, web agents, natural language processing and simulation and modeling. There is an ongoing effort in the EU-funded Network of Excellence AIM@SHAPE to develop ontologies formalizing various aspects of digital shapes, by creating several domain-specific ontologies and by integrating them into a general common ontology. As a part of this effort, an ontology for CAD model information based on the STEP 42 standard has been proposed. This article presents the establishment of this particular ontology as an introductory example. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.