Feature Recognition for Manufacturability Analysis

While automated recognition of features has been at tempted for a wide range of applications no single exist ing approach possesses the functionality required to per form manufacturability analysis In this paper we present a methodology for taking a CAD model of a part and ex tracting a set of machinable features that contains the com plete set of alternative interpretations of the part as collec tions of MRSEVs Material Removal Shape Element Vol umes a STEP based library of machining features The approach handles a variety of features including those de scribing holes pockets slots and chamfering and lleting operations In addition the approach considers accessibility constraints for these features has an worst case algorithmic time complexity quadratic in the number of solid model ing operations and modi es features recognized to account for available tooling and produce more realistic volumes for manufacturability analysis