Assembly-part automatic positioning using high-level entities of mating features

Abstract

We present a new and convenient method for automatically positioning parts in an assembly. High-level entities of mating features and mating relations are used to describe the composed state of parts in an assembly. The characteristics of volume, reference origin, and boundary face of mating features and parts are used to determine automatic part-positioning operations. Using the proposed approach, a hierarchical model of the assembly can be constructed more easily with fewer input data. This approach thus makes computer-aided assembly design systems more user-friendly and greatly reduces the amount of input data required, An example is presented to demonstrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.