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In the discipline of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), we propose a study for a possible solution to reuse pieces of engineering knowledge that have been already represented in other software tools. Those tools are mainly programs or CAD files, and are usually stored in companies' repositories (databases and PLM systems among the others). For reusing, we mean the possibility of replicating tout-court a specific set of rules, geometry and user interfaces in different projects, software and even application field. In particular, we propose the adoption of a tailored language based on XML syntax, whose taxonomy allows describing the most common aspects of the engineering design process: (1) product architecture descriptions, with their parts relations and design rules; (2) design process descriptions, with the interactions between company's knowledge and products.\ud Thus we propose the Rules Interchange Format (RIF) file to fulfil this achievement. The RIF file is the main output of a specific Work Package in the context of the "LinkedDesign" European Commission founded project. It is represented by an XML schema where we translated and joined together two of\ud the most common knowledge formalization modeling languages into XML tags: an UML Class Diagram based pattern, to describe products architectures; an IDEF0 Diagram based pattern, to describe design processes. In order to include the description of design automation aspects, to be used with\ud KBE systems, we enriched the mentioned patterns introducing special tags for managing product configuration

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Automation applications within Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) industrial context. It focuses the attention on some characteristics of the design process in SME context, and highlights issues of DA in relation to the characteristics previously evidenced. On this basis, it has been defined a methodology, named MEDEA (Methodology per Design Automation), to develop DA applications; it proposes a step by step roadmap and suggests methods and tools finalized to developers more skilled on products and design process than on IT technologies. Two industrial applications realized to evaluate the methodology are then presented. They are based on two different approaches: the first suitable to represent product structure and derived from Object Oriented programming and the second based on design process representation.

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