AN AUTOMATED TOOL FOR THE CORRECTION OF DATA DISCREPANCIES GENERATED DURING TRANSLATION BETWEEN CAD SYSTEMS

WHEN AN ORGANIZATION UPGRADES ITS COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN (CAD) SYSTEM, SWITCHES TO A NEW CAD VENDOR, OR IMPLEMENTS A CONCURRENT ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENT WITH HETEROGENEOUS TOOLS, TRANSLATION OF LARGE NUMBERS OF DATA FILES BETWEEN AUTOMATED DESIGN TOOLS IS REQUIRED. NEUTRAL FILE FORMATS, TYPICALLY USED TO EXCHANGE RAW DATA BETWEEN TWO SYSTEMS, RETAIN MANY SYSTEM-INTERNAL CONVENTIONS AND LIMITATIONS. THESE DIFFERENCES MUST BE RESOLVED TO COMPLETE THE DATA TRANSFER, WHICH IS CURRENTLY A TIME-CONSUMING, MANUAL PROCESS. THIS PHASE I PROJECT APPLIES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO ACCELERATE LARGE SCALE DATA TRANSFER BETWEEN AUTOMATED DESIGN SYSTEMS. THIS SYSTEM WILL USE EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL TRANSLATIONS TO DEVELOP DATA TRANSLATION RULES. THESE RULES CAN BE APPLIED TO RESOLVE SYSTEM-SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES IN ALL SUBSEQUENT DATA FILE TRANSFERS. THIS TECHNIQUE ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THE VARIATIONS BETWEEN OLD AND NEW DATA FORMATS. IT SHOULD THUS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE THE MANUAL EFFORT CURRENTLY REQUIRED FOR DATA FILE TRANSLATION. THE OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS ARE BEING DEMONSTRATED IN THE PRINTED WIRING BOARD DESIGN ENVIRONMENT, ALTHOUGH THE CONCEPTS MIGHT BE MORE BROADLY APPLICABLE. THIS PROJECT SHOULD PROVIDE A TOOL THAT FACILITATES THE AUTOMATED TRANSFER OF DATA BETWEEN DISSIMILAR AUTOMATED DESIGN SYSTEMS. THIS TOOL COULD ALSO BE USED TO PROVIDE INDUSTRY-STANDARD LANGUAGE PREPROCESSORS FOR NONSTANDARD DATA FORMATS ORIGINATING IN CUSTOM OR OBSOLETE CAD SYSTEMS.