CAD/CAM integrated system in collaborative development environment

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Abstract

For virtual enterprises to realize efficient operation in the 21st century, it is necessary to develop an environment that can support collaborative work of multi-disciplinary groups distributed in different places. CAD/CAM integrated system is an important subsystem in this environment. In this paper, the structure of CAD/CAM integrated system is presented, then, key technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration are discussed in detail and finally main functions and an application case of CAD/CAM integrated system is introduced.

Introduction

The popularization of computer network environment and thorough research and development of concurrent engineering provide technical base for realizing distributed collaborative product development. Under the distributed network environment, various engineers undertaking product development concurrently and collaboratively participate in the whole course of the same product development including design, process planning, manufacturing, assembly and so on, so as to shorten the product development cycle to the greatest degree and rapidly respond to the unceasingly changing market requirements [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6].

CAD/CAM integration is a technology to realize automatic transmission and conversion of information among CAD, CAPP, CAM, part manufacturing and so on. Feature technology is the kernel technology of CAD/CAM integration [7], [8]. Feature is the medium of information transmission in this integration. It can carry a mass of engineering information and organically link each subsystem of CAD, CAPP and CAM. Shape feature is mainly concerned in design phase, but in phase of process planning and assembly, process feature is mostly concerned. Since there are bigger differences between the shape feature and process feature, it is necessary to provide a uniform product definition model and product data management system for supporting real-time communication and cooperation of various engineers during each phase of product development.

In CAD/CAM integrated system supporting collaborative development, a feature is regarded as a basic unit of model and processing; then product definition model, which integrality expresses information about technologies and production management, is built and database management system is used to effectively manage and operate product data. During the collaborative development, under the supporting of network and database, various engineers can use the product definition model to accomplish collaborative product design, engineering analysis, manufacturability evaluation, process planning, NC programming and so on. Once the product design is finished, a correct and complete product model is built, and proceeding phases can start without any change and processing, so as to improve the quality of development, quicken development course, shorten development cycle, reduce the cost and enhance market competitive ability of products.

This paper presents a feature-based CAD/CAM integrated system and its structure, discusses key technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration and introduces an application case of CAD/CAM integrated system.

Section snippets

Structure of CAD/CAM integrated system

Traditional computer aided application systems, such as CAD, CAPP, CAM, are developed one by one in accordance with the needs of different departments in enterprise during the process of production. This has gained partial benefits on improving single function, but cannot realize automatic transmission and exchange between single applications due to lack of entire programming [9]. For example, drawing and related technical files exported from CAD system cannot be accepted by CAPP system. While

Technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration

The aim of CAD/CAM integration is to ensure designs consistency during the process of product design, engineering analysis, engineering simulation, up to product manufacturing, and make information be directly transmitted among computers, so as to bridge over the gap of information transmission caused by drawing and language, reduce information transmission error and avoid the possibility of mistake during editing. It is essential to resolve technologies related to realize CAD/CAM integration

Functions of CAD/CAM integrated system

CAD/CAM integrated system consists of modules involving feature class library management, feature-based CAD, CAPP and CAM, whose architecture is illustrated in Fig. 10. The following are the main functions of CAD/CAM integrated system:

  • The management subsystem of feature class library is designed to define, edit, query and manage the classes and their versions.

  • The CAD subsystem consists of modules involving feature modeling, feature editing, feature querying, graph exporting, etc. Supported by

Conclusions

Based on the concept of virtual enterprise, it is necessary to develop an environment that can support collaborative work of multi-disciplinary groups distributed in different places. CAD/CAM integrated system is an important subsystem in this environment. Rapid development of computer technology, communication technology and network technology provides technical base for realizing CAD/CAM integration.

In this paper, the structure of a feature-based CAD/CAM integrated system is put forward. This

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