Patent Document ID: 5555406
Application ID: 08298012
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A design assisting apparatus for assisting in design of parts of a product made of an assembly of the parts, said design assisting apparatus comprising: a) a plurality of part suitability examination means, each of said part suitability examination means including: (a1) a part performance decision means for deciding if target performances for said part are satisfied; (a2) a part knowledge data base for storing part knowledge to enable each of said parts in the assembly of the parts to satisfy the target performances of said part; and (a3) a part optimization means for optimizing parameters of a part by referring to the part knowledge stored in said part knowledge data base so that said part satisfies said target performances for said part, said part optimization means optimizes the parameters when said part does not satisfy the target performances for said part before the optimizing, wherein initially input parameters are first optimized to satisfy the target performances of said parts and then outputted; and b) a said product suitability examination means including: (b1) a product performance decision means for deciding if said product satisfies target performances for the product; (b2) a product knowledge data base storing product knowledge to enable said product to satisfy said target performances of said product; and (b3) a product optimization means for optimizing said parameters of said parts of said assembly of the parts constituting said product by referring to said product knowledge stored in said product knowledge data base so that said product satisfies said target performances for said product, said product optimization means optimizes the parameters when said product does not satisfy said target performances of said product under existing parameters, wherein the parameters of said plurality of parts outputted by said part suitability examination means are first optimized to satisfy said target performances for said product and then outputted.