Arm: A tool for identifying and repairing un-machinable shapes in designs

Abstract Providing early feedback on the manufacturability of a part design can greatly improve the quality of the product while reducing the time and cost of production. However, the necessary manufacturing knowledge is not always available. Computer tools that can provide this manufacturing knowledge by analyzing a design suggesting changes to improve its manufacturability would be a valuable asset to a designer. To this end, we present an approach to automatically generate redesign suggestions to improve the manufacturability of machined parts. Novel aspects of this approach include the ability to identify un-machinable shapes in a part and transform them into machinable features and to automatically identify the possible shape transformations based on properties of the machining equipment. This increases the scope of redesign generation tools by allowing them to be applied to parts that are not already machinable. We have developed a system called automated redesign for machined parts ( Arm ) that assists users in repairing parts that contain un-machinable shapes.

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