Authors:
Jorge D. Camba
1
and
Manuel Contero
2
Affiliations:
1
Texas A&M University, United States
;
2
Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Keyword(s):
Parametric CAD Modeling, Graph Theory, 3D Model Visualization, Mechanical Design.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
CAGD/CAD/CAM Systems
;
Computer Vision, Visualization and Computer Graphics
;
Geometry and Modeling
Abstract:
In an engineering design context, the process of modeling complex 3D parts with feature-based parametric software systems often produces a large number of dependencies between geometric features that are difficult to manage. The resulting network of feature interdependencies can be understood as an alternative representation of the CAD model that can help identify the most important aspects of the geometry, its critical features, and understand the overall complexity and interconnectedness of the model. Being able to visualize and process this information efficiently can significantly enhance design activities and facilitate model reuse, which can ultimately lead to cost and time savings, and better quality models. In this paper, we identify some of the simplifications and elements that are overlooked by current representation techniques and describe the negative consequences of not taking these elements into consideration. We describe a new method and a software solution to generate
a simplified, intuitive, and more accurate visualization of a parametric model as an acyclic digraph. Finally, to validate our approach, the proposed representation is compared to existing techniques using a group of CAD models.
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