Long-term archival and retrieval of engineering data : implications for the DART workbench.

Long term archival and retrieval of engineering data is a key component of product life cycle management. Standards have emerged over time to facilitate arc hiv l and retrieval, particularly with respect to CAD data. In this report we assess the state of the art in ind ustry, academia, and government, with respect to archival management and preservation planning. Ad ditionally, we present different scenarios for the integration of the DART Workbench tool with an archival a nd retrieval system. These scenarios are based on existing CAD/CAE industry standards as well as Sema ntic Web technologies. The goal is not to design and implement a long-term archival system, but rat he , o anticipate potential future systems and consider how the DART Workbench may integrate with them. A secondary goal is to provide some reasoned input for eventual lab-wide implementation of a pa rticular approach, thus steering the design of such a system to some degree.