Title: Novel surface and volumetric feature interactions for process planning

Authors: X.W. Xu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Auckland, 20 Symonds Street, Auckland 1, New Zealand

Abstract: This paper discusses different types of interactions that occur with surface and volumetric features. Two classification schemes are suggested to represent these interactions. In the case of surface features, an interaction is categorised as nested, overlapping, intersecting or multi-level related. The classification is facilitated by the nature of the interacting entities, i.e. interacting edges and faces. In the case of volumetric features, the interaction is regarded as a patch that is classified as containing or equal. These patches, in turn, give rise to four types of feature interactions, namely containing, contained, equal and overlapping. As an example, the interaction between features in an industrial component is determined and classified. Some of the parts from the |Catalogue of the NIST Design, Planning and Assembly Repository| have been used to demonstrate the theory derived herein.

Keywords: classification; surface features; feature interactions; volumetric features; process planning; interacting edges; interacting faces; CAD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2005.008264

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2005 Vol.24 No.4, pp.185 - 194

Published online: 27 Nov 2005 *

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