A feature-less approach to process planning

Feature-driven CAPP is the dominant model for Computer-Aided Process Planning today. Despite more than a decade of effort, there are no general methods for defining or identifying features, and consequently CAPP approaches in full generality could not been developed. An alternate to feature-driven CAPP is direct tool access-based models for process planning, which rely on the fundamental geometric information in the CAD model to develop the process plan. In this paper we check the accessibility of part surfaces from different tool access directions, and use this to generate the process plan for rotational parts (turning) and for milling. Features are still useful, especially for communicating with the shop floor user, the part faces are clustered into features for the purpose of process detailing. Thus features may be seen as being driven by the process plan and not the other way round.