ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the various x-refs definitions of the term “feature” and feature taxonomies and discusses the various feature-based design approaches. The manufacturing department studies the design from a manufacturability viewpoint and throws it back “over the wall” to the design department with a list of manufacturing concerns. The chapter provides the relation between computer-aided design (CAD) modeling and automatic feature recognition systems, feature-based design applications and the major research issues in the area of feature-based manufacturing. The design information provided by the CAD system needs to be translated into explicit manufacturing information such as part features in order to be understood by various computer-Aided Manufacturing application systems. Standards for Exchange of Product Data are an international standard that deals with the computer interpretable representation and exchange of product model data. The designer designs a product with minimal knowledge about the capabilities and limitations of the manufacturing technology.
