Similarity Assessment and Retrieval of CAD Models
type: CreativeWork
description: With rapid globalization and highly competitive markets, mechanical design reuse has been recognized as an effective way for manufacturing enterprises to survive by revitalizing existing designs instead of creating new ones. However, existing 3D content-based retrieval algorithms and systems, which have only focused on geometrical representations (i.e., meshed or surface models), can hardly retrieve reusable results for reuse. An effective similarity assessment and retrieval mechanism for CAD model reuse, which also takes the mechanical reusability into account, has not been defined. Therefore, this research aims to develop a reuse-oriented retrieval mechanism to locate reusable CAD models effectively. A semantics-based feature directed acyclic graph (FDAG) representation has been developed to capture complicated modeling interdependency knowledge among feature constitutes of a CAD model. Based on modeling expertise captured by FDAG representation, complicated and implicit design precedence semantics are organized as a partially ordered set (POSET). Two knowledge-driven FDAG partitioning schemes have been proposed to extract reusable CAD components. With these partitionings applied on existing CAD models, the CAD model similarity is no longer assessed on rigid 3D shapes. Instead, details of models are progressively simplified by using the proposed horizontal FDAG partitioning; therefore, assessment on essential similarity becomes possible. On the other hand, reusable sub-parts are extracted from complete models by using the vertical FDAG partitioning. An essential shape matching (ESM) method supporting CAD model retrieval based on their essential shape similarities has been presented. In ESM, complete CAD models are simplified, and their essential shapes are preserved for comparison. An essential shape aggregation (ESA) descriptor has been defined for comparing only essential shapes of CAD models while effectively tolerating trivial details. A partial shape matching…
abstract: With rapid globalization and highly competitive markets, mechanical design reuse has been recognized as an effective way for manufacturing enterprises to survive by revitalizing existing designs instead of creating new ones. However, existing 3D content-based retrieval algorithms and systems, which have only focused on geometrical representations (i.e., meshed or surface models), can hardly retrieve reusable results for reuse. An effective similarity assessment and retrieval mechanism for CAD model reuse, which also takes the mechanical reusability into account, has not been defined. Therefore, this research aims to develop a reuse-oriented retrieval mechanism to locate reusable CAD models effectively. A semantics-based feature directed acyclic graph (FDAG) representation has been developed to capture complicated modeling interdependency knowledge among feature constitutes of a CAD model. Based on modeling expertise captured by FDAG representation, complicated and implicit design precedence semantics are organized as a partially ordered set (POSET). Two knowledge-driven FDAG partitioning schemes have been proposed to extract reusable CAD components. With these partitionings applied on existing CAD models, the CAD model similarity is no longer assessed on rigid 3D shapes. Instead, details of models are progressively simplified by using the proposed horizontal FDAG partitioning; therefore, assessment on essential similarity becomes possible. On the other hand, reusable sub-parts are extracted from complete models by using the vertical FDAG partitioning. An essential shape matching (ESM) method supporting CAD model retrieval based on their essential shape similarities has been presented. In ESM, complete CAD models are simplified, and their essential shapes are preserved for comparison. An essential shape aggregation (ESA) descriptor has been defined for comparing only essential shapes of CAD models while effectively tolerating trivial details. A partial shape matching…
author: LI MIN
keywords: CAD model retrieval, design reuse, feature-based modeling, essential shape matching, partial shape matching
date published: 2011-07-19
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:33:34Z
provider: National University of Singapore
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: National University of Singapore