When milling concave corners, cutter load increases momentarily and fluctuates severely due to concentration and uneven distribution of material stock. This abrupt change of cutter load produces undesirable machining results such as wavy machined surface and cutter breakage. An important factor for studying cutter load in 2.5D pocket milling is the instantaneous Radial Depth of Cut (RDC). However, previous work on RDC under different corner-cutting conditions is lacking. In this different corner shapes. In our work, we express RDC mathematically in terms of the instantaneous cutter engage angle which is defined as Cutter Swept Angle (CSA). An analytical approach for modeling CSA is explained. Finally, examples are shown to demonstrate that the proposed CSA modeling method can give an accurate prediction of cutter load pattern at cornering cut.

Hybrid method of representing geometric entities as combination of boundary (B-rep) and functional (F-rep) representations is presented which can be used as a basis of solid modeling kernel. It contains whole functionality of classic B-rep kernel, and also supports enveloping (sweep of solid body). Principles and keysolutions are considered. Example of a real task that comes from gearing is provided.

Disassembly is a fundamental process needed for component reuse and material recycling in all assembled products. Integral attachments, also known as 'snap' fits, are favored fastening means in design for assembly (DFA) methodologies, but not necessarily a favored choice for design for disassembly. In this paper, design methods of a new class of integral attachments are proposed, where the snapped joints can be disengaged by the application of localized heat sources. The design problem of reversible integral attachments is posed as the design of compliant mechanisms actuated with localized thermal expansion of materials. Topology optimization technique is utilized to obtain conceptual layout of snap-fit mechanisms that realizes a desired deformation of snapped features for joint release. Two design approaches are attempted and design results of each approach are presented, where the geometrical configuration extracted from optimal topologies are simplified to enhance the manufacturability for the conventional injection molding technologies. To maximize the magnitude of deformation, a design scheme has been proposed to include boundary conditions as design variables. Final designs are verified using commercial software for finite element analysis.

In this paper, first order slice height calculation in Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) of free form surfaces is done with two different considerations: that a) the cutter trajectory is oriented in the direction of local absolute maximum more in number when compared to the case where the cutter trajectory is contained in the normal vertical section (NVS). However, it would help in achieving higher form accuracy of the final part because it would be a form of worst-case check. For the second proposed strategy, least number of slices results, thereby reducing overall build time drastically.

This paper presents a methodology in which the knowledge of design intents and change requests is communicated unambiguously cross collaboration partners through features. The domain of application is focused on the plastic part design for enabling effective collaboration between the product design and plastic mold making. The methodology takes the feature-based design approach and allows design features and knowledge to be reused in plastic injection mold design. It shortens the mold design lead-time, reduces mold design efforts, and enables unambiguous and fast design change management between product and mold designers. These contribute to the reduction of product development cycle time.

The growth of the World Wide Web and the advances in high-speed network access have greatly changed existing CAD/CAE environment. The WWW has enabled us to share various distributed product data and to collaborate in the design process. An international standard for the product model data, STEP, and a standard for the distributed object technology, CORBA, are very important technological components for the interoperability in the advanced design and manufacturing environment. These two technologies provide background for the sharing of product data and the integration of applications on the network. This paper describes a distributed CAD/CAE environment that is integrated on the network by CORBA and product model data standard STEP. Several prototype application modules were implemented to verify the proposed concept and the test result is discussed. Finite element analysis server are further distributed into several frontal servers for the implementation of distributed parallel solution of finite element system equations. Distributed computation of analysis server is also implemented by using CORBA for the generalization of the proposed method.

This paper describes a novel experiment that measures skin movement with respect to the flexional motion of a hand. The study was based on MR images in conjunction with CAD techniques. The MR images of the hand were captured in 3 different postures with surface markers. The surface markers attached to the skin where employed to trace skin movement during the flexional motion of the hand. After reconstructing 3D isosurfaces from the segmented MR images, the global registration was applied to the 3D models based on the particular bone shape of different postures. Skin movement was interpreted by measuring the centers of the surface markers in the registered models.

Viewpoint-dependent feature-based modelling in computer-aided design is developed for the purposes of supporting engineering design representation and automation. The approach of this paper uses a combination of a multi-level modelling approach. This has two stages of mapping between models, and the multi-level model approach is implemented in three-level architecture. Top of this level is a feature-based description for each viewpoint, comprising a combination of form features and other features such as loads and constraints for analysis. The middle level is an executable representation of the feature model. The bottom of this multi-level modelling is a evaluation of a feature-based CAD model obtained by executable feature representations defined in the middle level. The mappings involved in the system comprise firstly, mapping between the top level feature representations associated with different viewpoints, for example for the geometric simplification and addition of boundary conditions associated with moving from a design model to an analysis model, and secondly mapping between the top level and the middle level representations in which the feature model is transformed into the executable representation. Because an executable representation is used as the intermediate layer, the low level evaluation can be active. The example will be implemented with an analysis model which is evaluated and for which results are output. This multi-level modelling approach will be investigated within the framework aimed for the design automation with a feature-based model.

We propose two algorithms to generate (1) polygonal meshes and (2) developable surface patches far generalized cylinders defined by contours of discrete curves. To solve the contour blending problem of generalized cylinder, the presented algorithms have adopted the algorithm and related properties of LIDM (linear interpolation by direction map) that interpolate geometric shapes based on direction map merging and group scaling operations. Proposed methods are fast to compute and easy to implement.

During the design of dies and molds, the cavity of the object is obtained by subtracting it from a surrounding rectangular block. This box is subsequently split into two halves by the parting surface. Similar problems also occur in some RP processes such as LOM, SGC, SLS and 3DP where the machine produces a block inside which the prototype is buried. Determining the orientation of the object inside the box and the corresponding parting surface taking appropriate constraints into account have been addressed by several researchers. However, given the parting surface, the problem of splitting the box development of a software package called OptiLOM (now a module of an RP software Magics 8.0), the authors realized non-triviality of this problem since the loop can spread over as many as 5 faces of the box. In this paper, the authors have tried to bring out the importance of this problem and have presented their algorithm to solve it.

A large scale polygon models are often used to approximately represent 3D CAD models in Digital Engineering environment such as DMU (Digital Mockups) and network based collaborative design. However, they are not suitable for distribution on the network and for interactive rendering. We introduce a new coding system based on subdivision schemes called S-CODE system. In this system, it is possible to highly compress the model with sufficient accuracy and to view the model efficiently in a level of detail (LOD) fashion. The method is based on subdivision surface fitting by which a subdivision surface and curves which approximate a face of a CAD model are generated. We also apply a subdivision method to analytic surfaces such as conical and cylindrical surfaces. A prototype system is developed and used for evaluation with reasonably complicated data. The results show that the method is useful as a CAD data coding system.

The paper presents an efficient algorithm based on ROAM for visualization of large scale terrain models in real-time. The quality and smoothness of the terrain data visualization within a 3D interactive environment is preserved, while the complexity of the algorithm is kept on a reasonable level. The main contribution of the paper is an introduction of a number of efficient techniques such as implicit coordinates method within the patch array representing ROAM and the viewpoint dependent triangle rendering method for dynamic level of detail (LOD) updates. In addition, the paper presents experimental comparison of a variety of culling techniques, including a newly introduced method: relational position culling. These techniques are incorporated in the visualization software, which allows to achieve more realistic terrain representation and the real-time level of detail reduction.