VizCraft: A Problem Solving Environment for Configuration Design of High Speed Civil Transport

We describe a problem solving environment (PSE) named VizCraft that aids aircraft designers during the conceptual design stage. At this stage,an aircraft design is defined by a vector of 10-30 parameters. The goal is to find a vector that minimizes a performance-based objective function while meeting a series of constraints. VizCraft integrates the simulation code that evaluates a design with visualization for analyzing a design individually or in contrast to other designs. VizCraft allows the designer to easily switch between the view of a design in the form of a parameter set, and a visualization of the corresponding aircraft geometry. The user can easily see which, if any, constraints are violated. VizCraft also allows the user to view a database of designs using parallel coordinates. Keywords: Problem solving environment,scientific data visualization, mutlidiimensional visualization, aircraft design, multidisciplinary design optimization.