GPS-navigator: an advanced search engine to gather information and navigate through standards in the field of geometrical product specification

The Geometrical Product Specification (GPS) and the Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) are communication languages to code the tolerable morphology of manufactured parts and assemblies. Both languages should be unambiguous tools to communicate such information between designers, process engineers, and Coordinate Measuring Machines operators (CMM). GPS is the one developed in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) environment. GPS language is a complex code of 143 standard with further 15 under development. Moreover, as in each complex body of standards, most of them recalls other standards in a very intricate manner. So, the need to have a flexible tool to search and navigate through the standards is great, as is the need to optimize the work of the designer and to minimize the design, production, and control costs. The basic effort in building such a tool has been the development of the database and the structure for the search engine, called "GPS Navigator". In the following, the requirements for the coding phase have also been issued, to realize a powerful, efficient, fast, robust, and rigorous tool to navigate through the GPS standards. The final step of the "GPS-Navigator project" is the delivery of a software tool able to help and guide the designer to quickly consult the appropriate standard or set of standards.