Linking Design, Process Planning and Cost Information by Feature-based Modelling

SUMMARY Features are increasingly used in CAD/CAM to define product information on a semantic level and to store this information in so-called product models. Feature-based models offer considerable advantages and have the potential to close the gap between design on the one side and process planning and cost information on the other side. However, this article points out that there are still a lot of questions to be answered and a lot of problems to be solved, before the gap is really closed. It discusses the role of features in design, in design-for-manufacture approaches, in process planning and in cost information tools for designers.