Form feature recognition using convex decomposition: results presented at the 1997 ASME CIE Feature Panel Session

This paper is a summary of the results we presented at the Feature Panel Se ssion of the 1997 ASME Computers in Engineering Conference. Five participat ing groups submitted a total of nine test parts for feature recognition. To these test parts, Eve have applied our feature recognition method using a convex decomposition method called Alternating Sum of Volumes with Partitio ning (ASVP). By applying combination operations to the ASVP decomposition o f a part boundary, we obtain a Form Feature Decomposition (FFD) consisting of volumetric form features. The FFD can be further converted into applicat ion-specific feature representations, including the Negative Feature Decomp osition (NFD) for machining or cast-then-machined applications. We describe an additional application of the ASVP algorithm to identify and filter out cylindrical features from a part boundary. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.