Design Sciences: Downloads
Computer Aided Shape Synthesis system
Through the Design Synthesis and Shape Generation project (Click here for more details on the project), our research challenge was to explore ways in which computers might be used to augment design activity by supporting design synthesis: enhancing and highlighting options that might be open to the designer.
We have built a prototypical system that can work with and manipulate designers’ sketches at the earliest stage of the design process. It combines two technologies: shape grammars and computer vision. Since the theory of shape grammars was first proposed in the early 1970s, a number of shape grammar-based design systems have been built but all have struggled to find a way to automatically identify key elements of a shape, so-called “subshape detection”, that is essential to the automation of the shape grammar technology. In this project we used computer vision, which enables visually salient features to be extracted from shapes that are defined either through freehand sketches or computer images, to overcome the problem of sub-shape detection in designers' sketches.
A downloadable version of the software prototype is available through this link.
A video illustrating how we anticipate such systems being used is available through this link.
Leeds structured data editor
Through the Knowledge and Information Management Through-Life project (Click here for more details on the project), our research challenge was to explore ways in which through-life product-service related information might be best managed.
We have built a prototypical system that allows users to define and relate different kinds of product, process and enterprise structure. A demonstration was provided at an IMechE seminar in June 2008 (Click here to see the presentation).
A downloadable version of the software prototype is available through this link.
Leeds sustainable design learning and teaching resource
We have developed a learning and teaching resource for Sustainable Design through a RAEng Visiting Professorship in Sustainable Design, website.
A downloadable Learning and Teaching resource is through this link..