A strategy to support application's dependent features interpretation

Products have different meanings, according to technological viewpoints. Th ey tend to be constituted by an aggregate of specific models linked by func tional constraints. Each model fulfils functionalities through specific sha pes, that can have multiple interpretations. In this paper a product is con sidered as an initial gross shape that has been sequentially altered throug h the introduction of form features. Then, the strategy to recognize the fo rm features is to reconstruct the gross shape step by step, after each dete ction of an alteration by a form feature. This has the advantage of reducin g the problem complexity since it removes progressively the feature's inter actions. Some applications, such as FEA, need to interpret the product depe nding on the viewpoint applied: some features are to be removed, others are to be replaced by idealized ones. This abstraction process has two parts: simplification and idealization. The simplification is based on the describ ed strategy and cleans out the initial model from any non-pertinent feature . The second one idealizes the resulting objects according to analysis goal .