Functional requirements and conceptual design of the Feature-Based Modelling System

Abstract
The databases of contemporary CAD systems cannot be used to drive most CAE and CAM systems in an automated manner since CAD systems do not produce a complete product definition. The information that is supported is in the form of low-level details, from which higher-level information such as form features cannot be obtained easily. This paper describes the functional requirements of a system that will be capable of overcoming these deficiencies. FBMS consists of an advanced solid modelling shell and a feature mapping shell, offering richer data structures and the application of artificial intelligence techniques to geometric modelling.