Modern complex product design is becoming a knowledge-intensive teamwork activity since participants from different disciplines have been involved. Therefore, it is essential to obtain multi-discipline knowledge effectively to enhance the design process. However, considering multimodal, multi-temporal, and multi-spatial characteristics of the design process, it is still challenging to take advantage of crowd intelligence knowledge. Although crowd intelligence knowledge has been studied and applied in many fields, there is still a lack of a systematic analysis of its characteristics, applications, and future directions. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the recent advancement in knowledge- based engineering (KBE) approaches for complex product design. First, this paper discussed the characteristics of KBE approaches and concluded with a systematical definition of product design based on crowd intelligence knowledge. Second, the limitations of existing KBE approaches are pointed out by analyzing current single-discipline and multi-discipline KBE approaches. Third, two knowledge acquisition methods: knowledge query and knowledge push are presented, which are considered potential solutions for crowd intelligence design. Finally, the efficiency, accuracy, and real-time performance of the two methods are discussed, conclusions are drawn, and future research directions of KBE approaches are pointed out.