Profile machining using cutter diameter compensation is widely used in die and mould manufacturing. Especially automotive die makers try to use 3D-profile machining for trimming or flange dies. But the technological requirements and implementation issues haven't been defined. In this paper we summarized the requirements and issues of 3D-profile machining. Approximation of input profiles into sequences of line and helical arc is the first major issue. The second major issue is removing cutter inter- ference from the approximated curves holding z-values when the maximum cutter diameter is given. Keeping constant machining width, local machining, path linking problems and several detail technological requirements are also discussed.

Most Rapid Prototyping (RP) processes adopt a solid Computer Aided Design (CAD) model, which will be sliced into thin layers of constant thickness in the building direction. Each cross-sectional layer is successively deposited and, simultaneously, bonded onto the previous layer; and eventually the stacked layers from a physical part of the model. A new RP process, the transfer-type Variable Lamination Manufacturing process using expandable polystyrene foam sheet (VLM-ST), has been developed to reduce building time and to improve the surface finish of parts with the thick layers and a sloping surface. This paper describes the generation of Unit Shape Layer (USL), the cutting path data of the linen. hotwire cutter for the VLM-ST process. USL is a three-dimensional layer with a thickness of more than 1 mm and a side slope, and it is the basic unit of cutting and building in the VLM-ST process. USL includes data such as layer thickness, positional coordinates, side angles of each layer, hotwire cutting speed, the heat input to the hotwire, and reference shape. The procedure of generating USL is as follows: (1)Generation of the mid-slice from the CAD model, (2)Conversion of the mid-slice into a simply connected domain, (3)Generation to the reference shape for the mid-slice, (4)Calculation of the rotation angle of the hotwire of the cutting system.

In the initial stages of ship design, designers represent geometry, arrangement, and dimension of hull structures with 2D geometric primitives such as points, lines, arcs, and drawing symbols. However, these design information(‘2D geometric primitives’) defined in the drawing sheet require more intelligent translation processes by the designers in the next design stages. Thus, the loss of design semantics could be occurred and following design processes could be delayed. In the initial design stages, it is not easy to adopt commercial 3D CAD systems, which have been developed f3r being used in detail and production design stages, because the 3D CAD systems require detailed input for geometry definition. In this study, a semantic product model data structure was proposed, and an initial structural CAD system was developed based on the proposed data structure. Contents(‘product model data and design knowledges’) of the proposed data structure are filled with minimal input of the designers, and then 3D solid model and production material information can be automatically generated as occasion demands. Finally, the applicability of the proposed semantic product model data structure and the developed initial structural CAD system was verified through application to deadweight 300,000ton VLCC(Very Large Crude oil Carrier) product modeling procedure.

To exchange CAD data between heterogeneous CAD systems, we generally use a neutral format especially STEP, which is the international standard (ISO-10303) for product model data exchange. AP214 (Application Protocol) for the automotive industry not only takes into account geometry and organizational data, but also provides a classification mechanism for product modeling. When reading a STEP file during a design process that is exported from other CAD systems, it is a burden to a designer to go through the tedious process of removing duplicate or non-manifold entities, adjusting parts, and rearranging text. We analyze the structure of AP214 and develop a healing tool to solve the following problem. Without the assembly information in the Master workspace of CATIA, or to read a STEP file from Pro/Engineer, a designer should do a repetitive process of disintegrating an assembly into parts one by one. We have developed a post-processing tool for STEP AP214 that separates out a part from an assembly model and adjusts superfluous or useless entities using the ACIS kernel.

For the development of automobile lighting components, various designers, developers and manufacturing personnel are involved, each group needing different software tools. In this Smartlite project, several software tools were developed far product development of the lighting components and then tested using two different user interfaces (UIs); the first was based on a commercial CAD system (SDRCI-DEAS) and the second was based on a web browser. The specific focus of this study was a comparison between the new web-based UIs, and the UIs on commercial CAD systems. The usability data have been collected from the users at Visteon and showed that the web-based UIs provided comparable functionality with the CAD-based UIs in terms of performance and usefulness. For the criteria of accessibility, the web-based tools out-performed the CAD-based tools.

In 2D-Profile machining using cutter radius compensation cutter interferences are very common. To prevent the cutter interferences undercuts are inevitable in some regions of the profile. The undercut regions require cleanup machining using smaller radius tools. This paper considers a procedure of the tool path generation for the cleanup profile machining. And two methods are introduced for an efficient tool path generation. One is how to reduce the machining time by uniting adjacent tool paths of undercut regions, and the other is how to find the tool path with the minimal distance by applying TSP algorithm.

Surfaces of many engineering structures, specially, those of ships and airplanes are commonly fabricated as doubly curved shapes as well as singly curved surfaces to fulfill functional requirements. Given a three dimensional design surface, the first step in the fabrication process is unfolding or planar development of this surfaces into a planar shape so that the manufacturer can determine the initial shape of the flat plate. Also a good planar development enables the manufacturer to estimate the strain distribution required to form the design shape. In this paper, an algorithm for optimal approximated development of a general curved surface, including both singly and doubly curved surface is developed in the sense that the strain energy from its planar development to the design surface is minimized, subjected to some constraints. The development process is formulated into a constrained nonlinear programming problem, which is on basis of deformation theory and finite element. Constraints are subjected to characteristics of the fabrication method. Some examples on typical surfaces and the practical ship surfaces show the effectiveness of this algorithm.

It is difficult to support collaborative design with a conventional ship CAD system which manages design information using files. In this research, file storage has been replaced with a database. This paper describes the OpenDIS which is an interface between the geometric kernel and the database. Its main purpose is to implement the CAD system which has the STEP database as the native storage. A prototype CAD system has been implemented using that OpenDIS interface which is implemented by OpenCascade geometric kernel and the Objectstore object-oriented database. The STEP methodology is used as the database schema. This CAD system has been applied to the hull design of a ship in order to verify the usefulness of the interface.