Integrating design synthesis and assembly of structured objects in a visual design language

摘要

Computer Aided Design systems provide tools for building and manipulatingmodels of solid objects. Some also provide access to programming languages sothat parametrised designs can be expressed. There is a sharp distinction,therefore, between building models, a concrete graphical editing activity, andprogramming, an abstract, textual, algorithm-construction activity. Therecently proposed Language for Structured Design (LSD) was motivated by adesire to combine the design and programming activities in one language. LSDachieves this by extending a visual logic programming language to incorporatethe notions of solids and operations on solids. Here we investigate anotheraspect of the LSD approach; namely, that by using visual logic programming asthe engine to drive the parametrised assembly of objects, we also gain thepowerful symbolic problem-solving capability that is the forte of logicprogramming languages. This allows the designer/programmer to work at a higherlevel, giving declarative specifications of a design in order to obtain thedesign descriptions. Hence LSD integrates problem solving, design synthesis,and prototype assembly in a single homogeneous programming/design environment.We demonstrate this specification-to-final-assembly capability using themasterkeying problem for designing systems of locks and keys.