Patent ID: 7280948

Claim:
A computer-based design system for integrating geometries, the system comprising: a computer; a storage medium in communication with said computer; a template stored at the storage medium for defining contents of a plurality of geometries for each process in a product cycle, each of the geometries having product features, wherein the template is independent of a particular component of the product cycle and each process in the product cycle; agents executable on the computer for associating knowledge of the processes in the product cycle with the product features; agents executable on the computer for defining rules for the processes in the product cycle to update the template; agents executable on the computer for selecting tools to perform operations for completing the processes in the product cycle to update the template; agents exactable on the computer for accessing knowledge to update the contents of the geometries for the processes in the product cycle; and agents executable on the computer for synchronizing knowledge between the processes in the product cycle, wherein the synchronized knowledge is updated into the template as the synchronized knowledge is collected thereby continuously updating the template.