AN APPLICATION-INDEPENDENT METHODOLOGY OF FEATURE RECOGNITION WITH EXPLICIT REPRESENTATION OF FEATURE INTERACTION

The existing feature-based design and feature recognition methods cann ot fulfil the requirements of automated process planning. It is now re cognized that satisfactory modelling of interactions between features is necessary for developing an automated process planning system. The selection of an optimum manufacturing process for a part needs to be c onsidered at the conceptual design phase to incorporate the capabiliti es and constraints of the process in design. This paper describes a me thodology of feature recognition that is independent of manufacturing process and explicitly generates geometric feature interactions in a p art. The paper illustrates generation of feature sets for shape-formin g processes, and describes a method to convert the process-independent features into machinable volumes and tool paths for material removal processes.