Proposal for a method for advanced search of information and standards in the field of Geometrical Product Specification

The Geometrical Product Specification (GPS) is one of the most pow-erful tools available to link the “perfect” geometrical world of the models to the imperfect world of manufactured parts and assemblies. GPS aims to be an unam-biguous common language between designers, process engineers, and Coordinate Measuring Machines operators (CMM) in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) environment. GPS standards are 150 and further 26 are un-der development. The need to have a tool to search through the standards, to op-timize the work of the designer and to minimize the design, production and con-trol costs is great. A database and the structure for a search engine, called GPS Navigator, has been studied and developed, and the requirements for the follow-ing coding phase have also been defined, in order to realize a powerful, efficient, fast, robust and rigorous tool to navigate through the GPS standards. Final aim of this tool is to help and guide the designer to quickly consult the correct stand-ard or the most appropriate set of standards.