Laminae-based feature recognition

Motivated by the needs of mould and die manufacturers, this paper presents a novel approach to recognizing shape features on geometric models composed of both simple and complex ruled surfaces. The algorithm described uses a network of adjacent 2D-laminae (i.e., bounded surfaces) derived from a component's CAD model to both locate and create generic protrusion and depression feature volumes. The approach also enables the automatic generation of alternative feature descriptions and requires no predefined feature libraries.