SHEET-METAL PRODUCTS - DATABASE IN SUPPORT OF THEIR PROCESS PLANNING AND SURFACE DEVELOPMENT

This article proposed a method of basic product pattern to establish a system database for sheet metal design and development specifically f or thin sheet metal products. A systematic database covering the basic product pattern commonly used by the industry may be built. Such a da tabase can simplify the design process of sheet metal products, and al so accomplish automatic and accurate development to obtain the develop ment length and illustration. As for the design of sheet metal product s, this article emphasizes the concept of 'design for development'. As a result, the data of the product not only presents the geometric gra phic data of the product, but also contains development information an d development rules to form a complete data model. The user can obtain product data through the search and transformation function of the ex change interface developed by die system, and also obtain the accurate development length and drawing by means of the development programme. The system model for designing the basic product pattern of sheet met al uses the boundary representation method (B-Rep). The object-oriente d programme is employed to establish a system module programme for des igning and developing basic product pattern features. This system uses a personal computer as the hardware equipment under the AutoCAD envir onment.