Supporting Product Modelling with “GraphTool”

This paper presents the GraphTool system which supports all steps required to define graph grammars and to control their application. It provides graphical editors for graphs, graph transformation rules, and control diagrams. The considered graph grammars are based on different types of graphs (composite graphs, hierarchical graphs, hypergraphs and hierarchical hypergraphs) which can be labelled and attributed. In this tool, the standard approach to graphs and graph grammars is extended to graph grammar systems and graphs with layers. Adding layers allows the user to model graph structures composed of disjoint substructures, while adopting grammar systems allows for defining groups of grammars working together in a single derivation process. Graph structures obtained as the result of the graph derivations are used as knowledge representation in different application fields. This paper shows the versatility of GraphTool by presenting examples of its use in four different areas: computational grids, computer game states, Finite Element Method computations and architectural designs.