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.