Abstract: A database view is a perspective of a database. It tailors a database to better meet the requirements of a particular software tool. Views can be used in conjunction with data exchange standards to facilitate the sharing of product model data between software tools in design and manufacturing computing environments. This paper identifies several important roles that views can play in solving these data exchange problems, including creating user application objects, overcoming performance problems resulting from normalized data structures, creating summary attributes and relationships for product models, and building information infrastructures for sharing technical data. Each of these roles is illustrated with an example developed with a view definition language named EXPRESS-V. This language is based on the new international STEP standards for the exchange of product model data.

Keywords: data exchange, data exchange standards, CAD, views, product data management, engineering database management