A method for integrating material assignments between a computer-aided design (CAD) system and a product data management (PDM) system, the method performed by a data processing system and comprising: a) accessing a designed part in the CAD system, wherein the designed part includes one or more geometric entity objects wherein the geometric entity objects comprising solid bodies , surfaces , curves and points ; b) assigning one or more material assignment objects from the PDM system to each of the one or more geometric entity objects , the material assignment objects indicating a type of entity and a volume, length, area or count of material used for the entity, wherein the entity type can determine the dimensionality of the assigned material which can be used to calculate the amount of material in an assignment; c) associating one or more material objects from the PDM system with the one or more material assignment objects , wherein the one or more material objects identify one or more materials identified from the designed part ; d) tracking or searching one or more assignment objects in an electronic file based on the material objects in the PDM system; e) cross-associating a material object of the one or more material objects in the PDM system with the one or more geometric entity objects of the designed part based on the association of the one or more material objects with a material assignment object wherein the cross-associating identifies assignment objects correlating with different geometric entity objects based on their association with the same material object; and f) generating a design object in the PDM system representing the designed part based on the one or more assignment objects and the one or more material objects ; and g) wherein cross-associating the material object in the PDM system with the one or more geometric entity objects of the designed part comprises accessing a database with one or more different designed parts and locating and clustering every geometric entity object that has been assigned with the same material object . a) accessing a designed part in the CAD system, wherein the designed part includes one or more geometric entity objects wherein the geometric entity objects comprising solid bodies , surfaces , curves and points ; b) assigning one or more material assignment objects from the PDM system to each of the one or more geometric entity objects , the material assignment objects indicating a type of entity and a volume, length, area or count of material used for the entity, wherein the entity type can determine the dimensionality of the assigned material which can be used to calculate the amount of material in an assignment; c) associating one or more material objects from the PDM system with the one or more material assignment objects , wherein the one or more material objects identify one or more materials identified from the designed part ; d) tracking or searching one or more assignment objects in an electronic file based on the material objects in the PDM system; e) cross-associating a material object of the one or more material objects in the PDM system with the one or more geometric entity objects of the designed part based on the association of the one or more material objects with a material assignment object wherein the cross-associating identifies assignment objects correlating with different geometric entity objects based on their association with the same material object; and f) generating a design object in the PDM system representing the designed part based on the one or more assignment objects and the one or more material objects ; and g) wherein cross-associating the material object in the PDM system with the one or more geometric entity objects of the designed part comprises accessing a database with one or more different designed parts and locating and clustering every geometric entity object that has been assigned with the same material object . <EOS>