The European Union-funded SevenPro project has developed a semantic product lifecycle management system that provides a flexible, scalable, and user-oriented way of managing design data and product lifecycle information. The project’s developers say that by creating a semantic layer and enabling users to visualize products, components, and materials in virtual reality, the system could save engineers and designers significant time and reduce costs. SevenPro project leader Mikel Renteria says many companies still store information on paper files, and others store design data in obscure databases and repositories, forcing engineers to work on retrieving data that should be readily accessible to them, reducing productivity. Annotating design data semantically makes it easier to find and establish connections with other pieces of information, even if they are stored in different databases on a network. The SevenPro semantic environment features an adaptable ontology, enabling users to structure the ontology for specific products, services, and designs. SevenPro also features a virtual reality environment that makes it easier for designers and engineers to visualize products and components. Virtual reality makes it possible to graphically browse all the data associated with a product, which makes data associations easier to identify and significantly improves workflow, Renteria says.
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