Integration of CAD models with product assembly planning in a Web-based 3D visualized environment

Product assembly planning plays an important role in the product life cycle management. Product assembly planning consists of the product representation, assembly sequence generation, and the sequence optimization. An efficient assembly planning depends on the integration of CAD models with product assembly analysis. However, existing product modeling systems are separated from the product assembly planning. 3D CAD models cannot be directly used by most of the product assembly planning systems. The data extraction from CAD models becomes a critical process in the integrated product development system. This paper presents an integration method of CAD models with product assembly planning. Product data are extracted from product CAD-VRML models and stored in MySQL database. The extracted data are regrouped for product assembly reasoning and 3D visualization. The 3D animation is developed to visually validate the generated assembly plan. The product assembly process is simulated by manipulating the geometry using VRML external authoring interface.