The variation design of complex products has such features as multivariate association, weak theory coupling and implicit knowledge iteration. However, present CAD soft wares are still restricted to making decisions only according to current design status in dynamic navigation which leads to the huge drain of the knowledge hidden in design process. In this paper, a method of acquisition and active navigation of knowledge particles throughout product variation design process is put forward. The multi-objective decision information model of the variation design is established via the definition of condition attribute set and decision attribute set in finite universe. The addition and retrieval of the variation semantics is achieved through bidirectional association between the transplantable structures and variation design semantics. The mapping relationships between the topology lapping geometry elements set and constraint relations set family is built by means of geometry feature analysis. The acquisition of knowledge particles is implemented by attribute reduction based on rough set theory to make multi-objective decision of variation design. The topology lapping status of transplantable substructures is known from DOF reduction. The active navigation of knowledge particles is realized through embedded event-condition-action（ECA） rules. The independent prototype system taking Alan, Charles, Ian＇s system（ACIS） as kernel has been developed to verify the proposed method by applying variation design of complex mechanical products. The test results demonstrate that the navigation decision basis can be successfully extended from static isolated design status to dynamic continuous design process so that it more flexibly adapts to the different designers and various variation design steps. It is of profound significance for enhancing system intelligence as well as improving design quality and efficiency.
