摘要：The primary task of top-down assembly design is to define a product抯 detailed physical description satisfying its functional requirements identified during the functional design phase. The implementation of this design process requires two things, that is, product functional representation and a general assembly model. Product functions are not only the formulation of a customer抯 needs, but also the input data of assembly design. A general assembly model is to support the evolving process of the elaboration of a product structure. The assembly feature of extended concept is taken as a functional carrier, which is a generic relation among assembly-modeled entities. The model of assembly features describes the link between product functions and form features of parts. On the basis of this link, the propagation of design modifications is discussed so as to preserve the functionality and the coherence of the assembly model. The formal model of assembly design process describes the top-down process of creating an assembly model. This formal model is represented by the combination of assembly feature operations, the assembly model and the evaluation process. A design case study is conducted to verify the applicability of the presented approaches.