A visible image database system comprises a product database including
product data about the drawings, specification, and manufacturing data of
the product; a type database having the type drawings about the assembly
units of the product; a class database having a plurality of class
drawings capable of representing the product; the drawings of the
assembly units on the class drawings are directed to a plurality of type
drawings in the type database for selecting the types of the assembly
units; and a guide database having a plurality of representative drawings
each having specific meanings; the representative drawings being directed
to the class database. Moreover a search method using a visible image
database system is disclosed.