Boundary analysis and geometric completion for recognition of interacting machining features

Features are the basic elements which transform CAD data into instructions necessary for automatic generation of manufacturing process plans. In this paper, a hybrid of graph-based and hint-based techniques is proposed to automatically extract interacting features from solid models. The graph-based hints generated by this approach are in geometrical and topological compliance with their corresponding features. They indicate whether the feature is 2.5D, floorless or 3D. To reduce the product model complexity while extracting features, a method to remove fillets existing in the boundary of a 2.5D feature is also proposed. Finally, three geometric completion algorithms, namely, Base-Completion, Profile-Completion and 3D-volume generation algorithms are proposed to generate feature volumes. The base-completion and profile-completion algorithms generate maximal volumes for 2.5Dfeatures. The 3D volume generation algorithm extracts 3D portions of the part. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.