Cutting and Pasting Constrained Boundary Features

This paper presents a feature modelling approach that allows the designer to reuse former design solutions in the definition of new design features. Instead of the conventional approach of providing the designer a pre-defined set of basic volumetric features to build parts with, the proposed system offers utilities for cutting portions of former models as new boundary features that can be pasted into new product models. The boundary features are based on an ordinary boundary representation model that has been extended, or relaxed, in order to allow the manipulation of open boundary portions, i.e., incomplete solids that lack some faces and thus have no volume. The size and position dimensions of the boundary features are presented and managed with a constraint system that is attached to control the geometry information of the boundary representation model. A small prototype system has been implemented to demonstrate the suggested approach.