Validity Maintenance of Semantic Feature Models

摘要

One of the most powerful characteristics of feature-based modeling is the ability to associate functional and engineering information to shape information in a product model. Current feature modeling systems embody this paradigm in their graphical user interfaces, providing the user with "engineering rich" dialogs aimed at the creation of feature instances. Most systems, however, fail to consistently maintain the meaning of the features throughout the modeling process. For example, a modeling operation on the one feature may affect the semantics of other features without the user being notified by the system, let alone assisted in overcoming the situation. Semantic feature modeling is a declarative modeling approach that not only provides a well-defined specification of feature semantics, but also effectively maintains this semantics during the modeling process, for all feature instances in the model. This paper describes the validity maintenance mechanisms of the semantic feature modeling approach. These include (i) detecting each invalid situation, (ii) reporting it to the user, with appropriate explanation on its causes and effects, and (iii) providing the user with a convenient choice of reaction hints, aimed at recovering validity in the model. An example modeling session is also given, illustrating which high-level user assistance is provided under this approach.