Intelligent dimensioning for mechanical parts based on feature extraction

This paper presents an intelligent dimensioning approach to generate dimensions for 2D drawing of mechanical parts automatically from their 3D part models based on feature extraction. The key issues include the strategies and methods for identifying dimension redundancy, recognizing dimensioning features, determining dimensioning scheme, assigning necessary dimensions to suitable views, and locating the dimensions in reasonable positions for each view using artificial intelligent technology. Based on the approach, a corresponding software prototype was developed. Finally, it is demonstrated, from an example of dimensioning a box-type part, that its dimensions were generated successfully using this intelligent dimensioning software prototype. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.