GEOMETRIC REASONING AND DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURE

There are several motivations for linking together design-evaluation a pplications and CAD systems - the avoidance of tedious and error-prone reentry of data is just one. The paper examines the motives for linki ng a widely used design-for-assembly (DFA) evaluation methodology with CAD. The DFA methodology is described, and the interrogations of prod uct data that it requires are explored. The extensions to an existing solid-modelling system that are necessary to support these interrogati ons are considered, with particular reference to the representation of assemblies and assembly processes. An outline is given of how the com ponent properties used by DFA are computed, and the role of geometric reasoning in this.