THIS PAPER DESCRIBES EXPERIMENTAL EFFORTS TO INTEGRATE THE CAD/CAM FUNCTIONS BY MEANS OF A GEOMETRIC DATABASE STRUCTURE. GEOMETRIC DEFINITIONS ARE EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF FEATURES: THESE ARE ENTITIES WHICH CORRESPOND TO MANUFACTURING PROCESSES SUCH AS HOLES, BOSSES, SLOTS, POCKETS, FILLETS, CONTOURING, PATCHES, LOFTS, COONS, AND OTHER 2D/3D SURFACES. FEATURES ARE FIRST GEOMETRICALLY DERIVED ON A CAD SYSTEM VIA A CONSTRUCTIVE SOLID GEOMETRY (CSG) MODELER. THEIR PARAMETRIC CHARACTERISTICS ARE THEN DERIVED BY MEANS OF B-REP ALGORITHMS; NEXT, THE FEATURES ARE CONVERTED INTO CNC FUNCTIONS AND STORED IN THE SYSTEM'S DATABASE. THE CNC FUNCTIONS ARE DOWNLOADED IN THE CAM SYSTEM THUS CREATING A CAM DATABASE; TOOL PATHS, CUTTER DATA AND OTHER PERTINENT MACHINING DATA ARE AUTOMATICALLY DETERMINED AND THE PART PROGRAM IS GENERATED AND DOWNLOADED IN THE MACHINE TOOL CONTROLLER.
| Number of Pages : | 32 |
| Published : | 06/01/1990 |
