Toward a unified framework for version modeling in engineering databases

Abstract

Support for unusual applications such as computer-aided design data has been of increasing interest to database system architects. In this survey, we concentrate on one aspect of such support, namely, version modeling . By this, we mean the concepts suitable for structuring a database of complex engineering artifacts that evolve across multiple representations and over time and the operations through which such artifact descriptions are created and modified. There have been many proposals for new models and mechanisms to support such concepts within database data models in general and engineering data models in particular; here we not only describe such proposals; we also unify them. We do not propose yet another model but provide a common terminology and collection of mechanisms that underlie any approach for representing engineering design information in a database. The key remaining challenge is to construct a single framework, based on these mechanisms, which can be tailored for the needs of a given version environment.