Feature recognition for NC part programming

This paper reports on some current research concerning the automated recognition of manufacturing features on solid models to support the generation of NC machine code for process planning and manufacturing. Generic feature recognition algorithms previously developed by the authors for polyhedral objects have been considerably extended to enable the interrogation of more complex geometry and, in particular, the recognition of both 'closed' and 'open' manufacturing features. Once identified, these feature profiles are extruded to form 3D volumes, the so called ?-Volumes, which are then passed to the solids machining package SolidCAM. ⁴ A Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been designed which allows interpretation of the manufacturing features from the geometry of a component and keeps track of volumes created. The algorithm has also been integrated into SolidCAM and in such mode provides seamless operation within a commercial CAM system. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.