Patent ID: 8639728

Claim:
A method of computer assisted planning of a technical system comprising technical components, wherein the design of each technical component spans across a plurality of disciplines, comprising: creating a first high level data structure by linking a plurality of multi-category objects MO comprising digital representations of objects and related sub-objects in the first high level data structure of multi-category objects to produce a common mechatronics objects instance structure M, each multi-category object MO describing a technical component of a technical system and comprising a plurality of facets A′, B′ . . . N′, each facet being of a different specific category from a plurality of categories representing each of the plurality of disciplines involved in the design of the technical component and referring to information about the technical component in the corresponding specific category of the facet, wherein each multi-category object MO is described in a higher level of engineering than in a corresponding discipline; creating a plurality of second structures A, B, . . . N separate from the first high level structure M, each second structure A, B, . . . N being a discipline-specific structure of a different specific category from the plurality of categories enabling parallel use of the second structures and comprising linked category-specific elements, each category-specific element describing a technical component of the technical system with respect to the corresponding specific category, establishing a relation between each facet A′, B′ . . . N′ of a specific category of each multi-category object MO describing a technical component in the first structure M and a corresponding category-specific element of the specific category describing the technical component in the corresponding second structure A, B, . . . N of the specific category, wherein each of the plurality of second structures A, B, . . . N is connected to the common mechatronics objects instance structure M respectively through the plurality of facets A′, B′ . . . N′; wherein the common mechatronics objects instance structure M and the second structures A, B, . . . N are changeable by a user during planning of the technical system; and keeping consistency in the common mechatronics objects instance structure M and the second structures A, B, . . . N via the relation when changes are performed by the user in the common mechatronics objects instance structure M or the second structures A, B, . . . N.