Research On Constraint Information Visualization Methods Based On Cooperative Template

Constraint information is the essence of Cooperative Template and collaborative design. The aim of constraint information visualization is to visualize abstract, complex and dynamic constraint information into multiple forms based on the research fruits of cooperative template and information visualization, which facilitates comprehension of constraint information for designers and greatly optimizes collaborative design. This dissertation firstly introduces the definition and implementation flow of constraint information visualization. The representation and extraction of constraint information, visual mapping method and key techniques of visualization realization are further researched, which provide theoretical foundation and technical support for its application in collaborative design. The main contents include:1) Representation and extraction of constraint information: TMDL, short for Template Design Markup Language, is proposed to describe constraint information. Three types of key constraint information in cooperative template are extracted for visualization, which are hierarchical structure constraint, task constraint and component constraint information.2) Visual mapping method of constraint information: Taking advantage of some visual mapping methods available, with the principle of expressiveness and effectiveness, visual mapping method of constraint information is carried out by combining the results of visual structure mapping, visual space mapping, visual element mapping and visual attribute mapping. The visual mapping procedure and results of hierarchical structure constraint, task driven constraint and component constraint are given to realize the transformation from constraint information to visualization elements.3) Visualization display of constraint information: On the basis of results of visual mapping procedure, hierarchical structure constraint is represented in asteroid and tree form. Task Precedence Graph is created to represent task driven constraint and network structure graph is used to visualize constraint relationship among components. The detailed layout and interaction methods are also explained in the dissertation.