Open rule-setting method advanced in this paper concentrates on providing designers of engines with a convenient way to express their design innovations and develop the expected prototypes in the early CAD stage, and constitute effective models for the following analysis process of CAE and CAPP. The problems arisen in the process of conceptual design with the traditional experience-based development method are analyzed. Based on those analyses, open rule-setting method is presented and some associated technical problems are discussed. The functional framework of open rule-setting system was built as software engineering methods. The speciality of the engine product as a kind of complex product and the requirement of the engine product based on its structural particularity to rule-setting system are considered carefully. A demonstration is supplied to illustrate how the open rule-setting method enhances the efficiency and quality of the engine conceptual design.