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International Journal of
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An intelligent feature-based
process planning system for
prismatic parts
Lalit Patil & S. S. Pande

Version of record first published: 14 Nov 2010

To cite this article: Lalit Patil & S. S. Pande (2002): An intelligent feature-based
process planning system for prismatic parts, International Journal of Production
Research, 40:17, 4431-4447

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 int. j. prod. res., 2002, vol. 40, no. 17, 4431±4447

An intelligent feature-based process planning system for prismatic parts

LALIT PATIL y and S. S. PANDEy*

Today, feature-based design has become a core technology for solid product
modelling primarily because it can capture the designer’s intent and provide the
capability to satisfy the informational needs of the down-line application tasks for
CAD/CAM integration. This paper reports the development of an intelligent
environment, IFPP (Intelligent Feature-based Process Planning), for the
feature-based design synthesis and process planning of prismatic parts to be
produced on CNC machining centres. IFPP consists of two functional modules,
namely Feature Based Modeller (FBM) and Automatic process Planner
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(AutoPlan). The FBM provides a graphical environment for the feature-based

synthesis, validation and representation of the solid model of the part to be
produced. AutoPlan maps this feature information to the corresponding machin-
ing processes to generate the operation plan and corresponding CNC code. This
CNC code is unique in that it is functionally encapsulated with the feature data to
provide a `Variant’ strategy utilizing the special parametric programming facilities
provided on the controller. IFPP thus demonstrates an integrated part-process
environment that enables quick turnaround from design to manufacture.

1. Introduction
Modern manufacturin g faces several challenges, such as sti€ global competition,
low volume, large variety production, the requirement of high productivity and
product quality, and shorter lead times from design to manufacturing . During the
last two decades, CAD/CAM technology has been extensively developed to auto-
mate and integrate various stages in the design and manufacturing cycle (Lee 1999).
Despite these e€ orts, di culties exits in the integration of CAD and CAM software
domains mainly due to their di€ erent informational needs. CAD focuses on part
speci®c geometry and topology while CAM needs process-speci®c features and their
accuracies. Integration e€ orts thus attempt to augment or translate information
between the two domains.
In this background, today, feature-based (supported) design has become a core
technology for solid product modelling primarily because it o€ ers the following
important characteristics.
. Capability to capture the designer’s intent in terms of product shape, toler-
ances, surface ®nish and manufacturing processes, right at the design stage.
. Capability to satisfy the informational needs of the down-line application
tasks.

Revision received April 2002.

{ Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109,
USA.
{ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay),
Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: sspande@iitb.ac.in

International Journal of Production Research ISSN 0020±7543 print/ISSN 1366±588X online # 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/00207540210155855
 4432 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

The feature-based modelling techniques o€ er the ¯exibility to capture product

shape, size, tolerance, surface ®nish and process-speci®c information, such as depres-
sion (hole)/protrusion (boss), at the design stage, thus enabling smoother part±
process integration.
This paper reports the design and development of an intelligent environment for
the feature-based design synthesis and process planning of prismatic parts to be
produced on CNC machining centres.
Section 2 presents a brief review of research e€ orts directed towards feature-
based CAD, CAPP and their integration. The modular architecture of the proposed
system (IFPPÐIntelligent Feature-based Process Planning) is discussed in section 3.
Section 4 presents, in detail, the feature based modeller (FBM) while section 5
discusses the design issues related to the intelligent process planning strategy
(AutoPlan) implemented in IFPP. The paper concludes with a sample case study
to demonstrate the capabilities of the system developed.
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2. Literature review
The literature documents that, in the last two decades, several research e€ orts
have been focused towards feature-supporte d part modelling, automated process
planning and CAD/CAPP/CAM integration.
For feature-supporte d part modelling, two directions were pursued, namely auto-
matic extraction of features from solid models, and feature-based part modelling.
Several di€ erent approaches, such as rule based (Vandenbrande and Requicha 1993),
syntactic pattern based (Kulkarni and Pande 1995, Prabhu and Pande 1999) and
graph based (Joshi and Chang 1988, Gavankar and Henderson 1990) recognition,
have been reported for the automatic feature extraction from B-Rep/CSG/wireframe
CADD models. Various domain-speci®c feature modelling systems, such as PRI-
CAPP (Pande and Walvekar 1990), QTC (Chang 1990), BLOCK CAD/CAM
(Hoshi and Hanada 1992), OMEGA (Sabomin and Villeneuve 1996), PRISPLAN
(Karadkar and Pande 1996), CFACA (Liu 2000) and VITool (Maropoulos et al.
2000), have been reported with a focus on prismatic machined parts. These feature-
modelling systems attempted to capture part geometry and process data at the
modelling stage and were thus found to be more suitable for integration with auto-
mated process planning systems.
These systems vary in their capabilities in terms or strategies for part geometry
input and process planning stages, such as operation extraction and sequencing,
machine/tool/cutting parameter selection and NC code generation. The various
strategies for input of part geometry information have been a€ ected by the growth
in the use of feature technology as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Further,
various steps in the process planning domain, such as operation extraction and
sequencing, machine selection, tool selection, cutting parameter selection and NC
code generation have been dealt with using di€ erent strategies in di€ erent systems. In
the domain of process planning, most of the research e€ ort has been devoted to the
automatic extraction and sequencing of operations. PRICAPP (Pande and Walvekar
1990) relies on a heuristics (industry) based policy for the sequencing. BLOCK
CAD/CAM (Hoshi and Hanada 1992) optimizes the machining operations and
their sequence by using certain heuristics based on best machining practices.
OMEGA (Sabomin and Villeneuve 1996) uses production rules to de®ne operation
sequences that are then subsequently grouped into set-ups based on the nature of the
tolerances. Process selection in QTC (Chang 1990) is done by utilizing a knowledge
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4433

base that comprises results from research and inputs from industry. The operations
are sequenced in order to optimize the number of set-ups and tool changes. Systems
such as QTC (Chang 1990), OMEGA (Sabomin and Villeneuve 1996), PRISPLAN
(Karadkar and Pande 1996) and CFACA (Liu 2000) focus on CAPP for CNC
machining centres. These systems claim to generate CNC code to fabricate the
object, but do not describe the approach and the quality (optimality) of the code.
These systems have thus achieved a restricted integration between part synthesis and
CAPP for speci®c part geometry arid machine tool con®gurations.
Much commercial CNC programming software is semi-automati c in operation,
requiring several inputs from process planners for identi®cation of features to be
machined, tool path approach/retract geometry, boundaries of features, etc. Such
software often ignores advanced programming utilities provided by the controllers,
such as Parametric Programming, special cycles (macros), feature pattern symmetry
aids (rotation, mirroring), etc. As a result, the CNC codes produced by many CAM
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software, tend to be quite verbose, repetitive and ine cient.

Feature-based part modelling o€ ers an excellent framework for capturing the
part-process data right at the modelling stage and further encapsulating it with the
controller speci®c cycles to produce compact, e cient CNC code. A need, therefore,
exists to develop an integrated system for the intelligent feature-base d part modelling
and process planning of prismatic parts produced on CNC machining centres.
The present work is an attempt in this.

3. Modular architecture of IFPP

Figure 1 shows the modular architecture of IFPP, the feature-based process
planning system developed in this work. It comprises the following two primary
modules:
(1) Feature Based Modeller (FBM). It provides the graphical environment for
intelligent synthesis, validation and representation of the solid model of the
part. The part synthesis is done in terms of prede®ned features from the
feature library developed in this software. Several rules provide topological,
geometric and process related checks to aid in the validation of the model.
Geometric information that governs shape, size and location of the object is
integrated with process-related information, such as tolerances and surface
®nish, to represent the feature-based solid. The design philosophy of FBM is
discussed in more detail in section 4.
(2) Intelligent process planner ± AutoPlan (Patil 1998). This module essentially
processes the feature information from the FBM to map into the corre-
sponding machining operations. It carries out different stages of process
planning such as set-up planning, operation sequencing, tool selection and
the selection of the machining parameters. This information is ®nally
processed to generate neutral cutter location (CL) data, which are post
processed to generate the CNC code for machining the part on a three-
axis machining centre with a FANUC series 0-MB controller. AutoPlan is
discussed in more detail in section 5.
The entire system has been developed in object oriented fashion using the C‡‡
programming language. Object oriented design helps in the representation and
encapsulation of part feature geometry and related process information to achieve
the desired part-process integration. C‡‡ language constructs help in the implemen-
 4434 L. Patil and S. S. Pande
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Figure 1. Modular architecture of IFPP.

tation of feature objects with these characteristics. AutoCAD provides a rich

Application Program Interface (API) to overlay the current software on its graphical
environment. Several editing and viewing facilities provide by AutoCAD are used
for part model synthesis, visualization and editing.

4. Feature-based design environment

The front end of the software is the Feature Based Modeller (FBM) developed at
the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. It provides an interactive graphical
environment for the synthesis and validation of feature-base d models of prismatic
parts.
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4435

The part model can be conceived as having a gross shape (a 2.5D sweep primi-
tive) on which a variety of local features such as holes, pockets, steps, slots and their
individual shape derivatives can be modelled as interacting local part features. The
object Oriented Programming Strategy (OOPS) is used to represent the geometric
and process related information of the features on the part solid model.
Various design and implementation issues of the feature-based modeller are
brie¯y discussed here.

4.1. Feature taxonomy

Figure 2 shows the taxonomy of features implemented in the FBM. These feature
families were gathered by studying a large number of industrial component drawings
and the research literature (NIST 2001).
Features can be primarily classi®ed into two types as follows.
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. Gross features. These resemble a raw stock for CNC machining from which
various feature shapes are carved out. In the present work, 2.5D linear sweep
primitives have been implemented. The exact shape of the gross feature
depends on the two-dimensional (2D) cross-sectional contour designed by
the user.
. Local features. These represent families of features having varying geometries
but the same topological characteristics (connectivity). All local features are
considered to be of depression type as the primary manufacturing operation is
CNC machining.

Figure 2. Feature taxonomy in the FBM.

 4436 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

Based on the manner in which features appear on the faces, the local features are
further classi®ed as follows:
. Faced-based features. Holes, pockets, feature patternsÐArrays of holes.
. Edge-based features. Slots.
. Corner-based features. Steps.

4.2. Feature representation using OOPS

The object oriented design strategy has been extensively used in IFPP for the
representation and hierarchical organization of feature data and associated process
message services.
Figure 3 represents the information stored in the object oriented paradigm for a
slot as an example feature. The Feature object stores the location and identi®cation
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attributes of the feature. It provides polymorphic user interfaces to input data for
these attributes.
The Local object deals with the dimensional attributes of the feature (e.g. length.
width, and the height for the rectangular slot). It also records the depth status (blind/
through) of the feature. Information, such as tolerances and surface ®nish, is stored

Figure 3. Typical information of a slot in OOPS.

 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4437

as process data by this object. Polymorphic methods are used to validate the feature
based on design and manufacturabilit y issues.
The object oriented design strategy provides the capability to organize and repre-
sent the feature information for easy message processing. Further, it o€ ers the ¯ex-
ibility to modify the de®nition of an object, its structure, message and linkup without
a€ ecting the rest of the system con®guration. This is a major advantage of the object
oriented design paradigm.
The data structure of FBM makes it easier to hook up applications onto the
model, thus enhancing the portability and extensibility of the system.

4.3. Feature validation

The feature validation system implemented in FBM focuses on information of
signi®cance to manufacturing and does not retain CAD design data. Using FBM, the
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designer models the part in terms of the manufacturabl e feature primitives outlined
in section 4.1. Feature taxonomy has been worked out by considering manufactur-
able feature shapes and not the design features. FBM has been provided with a set of
rules to validate intelligently the part features right at the stage of creation. The
feature validation checks include the input of vital dimensions for feature construc-
tion, tolerance speci®cations, location and orientation characteristics (datums) with
proper values; interference checks between the, current feature being modelled and
the previous features/raw stock; process constraints on size, tolerance, accuracy. etc.
These rules have been collected from the literature (Bralla 1986) and from the study
of actual component drawings.
Typical principles for feature validation are as follows.
(1) Topological checks. These basically include the check’s on the number of
constituent faces, e.g. a blind slot has four faces; a corner step has three
faces; a through hole has one face etc.
(2) Geometry checks. These include checks to maintain the topological and
feature-type constraints, e.g. position and width of slot to ensure that
some material surrounds it.
(3) Process checks. These include limits on hole spacings, tolerance/®nish, sizes
of features and transitional features such as arcs/®llets etc.
The CAD model is created by the user in an incremental fashion. Therefore, the
system keeps checking for validity on creation of each new feature and displays
critical areas/features by highlighting them. Many times, the validity checks detect
and display possible feature interactions (e.g. a hole in a slot). The user is given the
option to override the result and proceed further with the modelling.

4.4. Model representation

Figure 4 depicts the representation of a part model in the FBM. The part model
represented as a set O, comprising the various features, i.e. O: fG; L1 ,
L2 ; L3 ; . . . ; Ln g, where G is the gross feature, and L1 , L2 ; . . . ; Ln are the local features
(®gure 2) The feature model is represented as a graph data structure whose nodes are
features and whose arcs capture the functional relationships among the features, in
terms of constraints, such as dimension, orientation, tolerance, etc. This information
is gathered from the user through a user interface. Figure 5 is a screen shot during
the input of information for a slot as a local feature on the gross object.
 4438 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

Figure 4. Representation of features modelled in FBM.

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Figure 5. Typical user input for the modelling of a rectangular slot.

Figure 4(a) shows an example component that can be modelled using the FBM.
The features to be machined on this component are step, rectangular pocket, slot and
an array of holes inside the pocket.
Figure 4(b) shows a feature graph for the example component considered in
®gure 4(a). The arc joining G and L1 represents the information about the location
(x and y coordinates) of the local feature L1 on the gross feature G. The existence of
the array of holes (L6 ) on the face of the pocket (L5 ) is represented by an arc from L5
to L6 . Similarly, other relationships are maintained and represented in the FBM. The
geometry of every feature is further stored as a B-Rep structure by the solid mod-
eller. It is linked to the Feature object in the FBM data structure. As shown in
section 4.2 and in ®gure 3, all the information related to a feature is stored in a
data structure compatible with object oriented design.
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4439

Thus, the FBM stores feature information along with the B-Rep structure of the
solid model. Process information, such as tolerances, is also associated with the
geometric information. This repository of the feature information is then utilized
for the down-line application of process planning and CNC code generation.

5. Automatic process planning environment

AutoPlan, the Automatic process Planning module interprets data in the feature-
based part model, plans the tool-path and creates a G/M code ®le suitable for the
FANUC series 0-MB controller.
Various activities can be classi®ed into four categories as follows:
(1) Set-up planning.
(2) Feature ± process mapping.
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(3) Tool path planning.

(4) CNC code generation.
These are discussed in detail in the following sections.

5.1. Set-up planning

The Feature Based Modeller (discussed in section 4) enables the user to create a
part model in terms of its constituent gross feature and local features.
As seen in section 4.4, the part model is a set O comprising of features O:
fG; L1 ; L2 ; L3 ; . . . ; Ln g where G is the gross feature, and L1 , L2 ; . . . ; Ln are the
local features (®gure 2). The feature model is represented as a graph structure
where the nodes represent features while the arcs capture functional relationships
between them, in terms of constraints such as tolerances, orientation, dimension, etc.
The problem of set-up planning is to derive feature subsets S1 , S2 ; . . . ; Sm such that
all Sijiˆ1;m ³ O where, m is the number of set-ups.
Usually, all Si are mutually independent, i.e. Si \ S j ˆ ¿ 8i 6ˆ j, unless a special
requirement of machining a feature in two or more set-ups exists due to very strin-
gent and characteristic datum tolerance bindings (Kale and Pande 1998).
The algorithm for set-up planning to obtain Si ³ O primarily attempts to group
the features based on various criteria as follows:
. same/similar tool access directions,
. same part face occurrence,
. identical (parallel) feature/face normals,
. same/similar tolerance datum speci®cations,
. possibility of using a `Common Tool’ to machine many features,
. `free’ areas on part faces where ®xture pads can be located for clamping, to
enable machining of the maximum number of features per set-up,
. process considerations for deciding precedence among features for machining.
The software automatically generates the set-ups S1 , S 2 ; . . . ; Sm by grouping
features from the FBM part model ®le. The user is given the ¯exibility to transfer
features from one set-up to another based on special requirements, if any.

5.2. Feature±process mapping

This module focuses on two issues, namely strategies for operation extraction,
and the selection of the tool and the process parameters.
 4440 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

5.2.1. Operation extraction

This stage functionally maps the information for each feature in the set-up, Si to
the manufacturing process(es) needed to realize the feature on the part. This is
typically based on the following correspondence:

Feature 7! Process
Hole 7 ! Centre drilling, drilling, reaming, boring, tapping, milling
Slot 7 ! Slot milling (pro®ling)
Step 7 ! Step milling (pro®ling)
Pocket 7 ! Centre drilling and pocket milling (pro®ling)
Cross 7 ! Face/pro®le milling

This mapping is governed by several factors, such as the type of feature, its size
and dimension, tolerance and surface ®nish requirements, and accepted manufactur-
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ing practices (Halevi and Weil 1995). Typical operation selection strategies for the
machining of holes are included here as an example.

5.2.2. Operation selection strategy ± holes

Based on the type of tolerance for the hole and its parameters, such as shape, size,
tolerance, etc, the machining of holes can be broadly mapped to operations as
follows:

Shape Single tool (drill)/multi-tool (multi-drill)/special tool (step-drill)

Size Single/two stage operation.
Tolerance Single/multi-processes with precedence.
Location Single/multi/special tool.
Special Reaming, boring, tapping, etc.

Rules have been written to match the feature characteristics with hole machining
strategies as above. They are further broken down as follows:

Location accuracy Centre (pilot) drilling. (for hole/pocket machining)

Hole creation Drilling.
Hole enlargement Two step process step holes/counterbore, boring.
Hole ®nishing Reaming, boring.
Hole modi®cation Tapping, end mill pro®ling.

Table 1 represents the decision logic applied in selection of the processes and
sequencing to machine a hole. The process capabilities of the various hole-making
processes are stored in the database, which can be edited by the user to account for
shop ¯oor practices. In AutoPlan, rules have been written to encode process knowl-
edge derived from actual shop studies and from the literature. This rule base can be
edited by the user to tune the mapping strategy.
After identifying candidate operations, the operations are sequenced. If any
con¯icts arise during the planning, they are taken care of based on a broad strategy
as follows.
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4441

If hCondition i Then hActioni

p 



L=D > 2 D=8
and D > 6 mm Centre-drill
and Prev Hole = NULL

L=D < 4
and D < 50
and 11 < tol < 13 Twist drill
and 5 < Ra < 80

L=D.. > 4 Peck. Drill

. ..
and 0:16 < Ra < 2:5 Finish Bore

Table 1. Decision logic applied for process

selection for holes (Halevi and Weil 1995).
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(1) All operations generally follow the sequence constraint shown in ®gure 6.
(2) Reaming is preferred to boring as it provides better surface ®nish and size
tolerances as compared to boring. This also reduces the number of tool
changes, thereby the non-productive time and thus also the machining cost.
(3) In the case of counterbored holes, if a counterboring tool is hot available,
then the feature is considered as two holes on the same axis.
(4) Cycle time is reduced by minimizing the number of operations and tool
changes. The number of set-ups per machine is maximized.
(5) If more than one process appear to qualify as the ®nal ®nishing process, then
these processes are given the same priority and the user has the option to
choose, or some other criteria (cost, availability of tool, availability of
machine, etc) is used to resolve the con¯ict.

Figure 6. Operation sequence constraint for machining of a hole.

 4442 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

Similar strategies are developed and implemented for milling operation for gen-
erating contoured features such as slots, steps, pockets, etc. Parameters that govern
the operation selection of these features include the dimensions of the feature, sur-
face ®nish requirements, corner radius, cutter overlap, etc. Issues such as cutter
selection, single/two-stage process operations, cut size determination, etc, are
planned, based on the recommendations from shop ¯oors and the literature (Patil
1998).

5.3. Tool path planning

Three issues are addressed in the domain of tool path planning:
. tool motions to machine a feature,
. selection of cutting tools,
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. selection of process parameters.

The selection of cutting tools and process parameters (speed, feed, etc) is fairly
straightforward and is implemented in any standard process planning software. In
AutoPlan, similar strategies were implemented to select cutting tools and process
parameters from the databases (Patil 1998). The discussion on these two issues is
thus not included in this paper.
The unique feature of AutoPlan is the strategy for planning the tool motions for
each feature. This is now discussed in detail.

5.3.1. Approach
In standard CNC programming systems, the tool path planning strategy is gov-
erned by the set of three surfaces, termed as drive, part and check surfaces, which are
derived from the part geometry. The cutter location (CL) path data are obtained by
o€ setting the surface to be machined, as per the type of tool and its contact condi-
tions, with the part. The tool path planning activity in such software primarily
focuses upon the geometry of surfaces, tool type and contact conditions. The geo-
metry and topology of the part feature being machined is not considered in a
bundled manner and the CNC tool path apparently bears no direct relationship
with the feature in a gross sense.
In contrast, the approach followed in AutoPlan uniquely maintains the relation-
ship between the feature and its associated manufacturing strategy (tool path) in a
generic fashion. The object oriented framework in FBM permits encapsulation of
this part±process information. This entails that the hierarchical organization
of features in the part model translates directly into the hierarchical organization
of feature speci®c CNC codes, arranged as per the sequence of manufacturing of
features in each set-up.
This feature-CNC code integration will provide an environment (Variant Design
or Variant Process Planning) by which changes in feature parameters (size, location,
orientation, etc) on the part model will be automatically mapped to changes in CNC
codes without the requirement of generation of CNC code de novo. Thus, a standard
master CNC code could be created in a generic fashion that will cater to a group of
parts belonging to a part family. This strategy will be very useful in the rapid
creation of error-free, standard CNC code. Since the facilities of parametric pro-
gramming and special cycles provided by the controller are incorporated into the
feature manufacturing strategies, the code is deemed to be compact and e cient.
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4443

In AutoPlan, this concept mentioned above has been implemented. A sample tool
motion planning strategy for the machining of slots is discussed.

5.3.2. Feature machining strategyÐslot

Figure 7 shows the requisite motions required to machine a through slot.
The feature data for a slot comprise the following:
. dimensions of the slot,
. location of the slot,
. tolerances, surface ®nish on the slot,
. type of slot, e.g. through slot or blind slot.
This information embedded in the feature object is processed by AutoPlan to
derive the following parameters for tool path planning:
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. Feature (slot) access directions e.g. X, or Y or Z, depending on orientation and

location.
. Tool point entry.
. Tool ramp on and ramp o€ .
. Number of longitudinal passes and the magnitude of step-over feed.
. Depth of cut in machining and number of passes along the direction of the
feature depth (Z).
The tool type and size are used to compute the number of passes and the depth of
cutting. Messages in the feature object carry out these computations to derive the
cutter location data by planning the tool path. In principle, a generic code similar to
a Macro (as in parametric programming) is generated for every feature. Data speci®c
to the feature type will be passed on to this generic CNC code to machine a part
feature with speci®ed dimensions, location, etc. The generic code is thus, indepen-
dent of the speci®c feature data.
Various features in the part model are processed in a similar fashion and the
respective generic tool motion macros are created. These individual tool motion data
contain dimensional attributes of a feature, non-machining cutter motions

Figure 7. Cutter motions required to machine a through slot.

 4444 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

(approach/retract), machining cutter path, ramp on and ramp o€ , etc, as mentioned

earlier in the case of the slot.
AutoPlan utilizes various tool-path strategies commonly used in practice, such
as point-to-point for machining of holes, and zigzag, spiral-in and spiral-out
machining strategies for pockets. The contour o€ set strategy is employed for
the machining of contoured pockets. The strategy of zigzag machining is imple-
mented for slots and steps by considering them to be pockets with virtual open
walls (Patil 1998).
Feature speci®c cutter location data are stored in the form of a neutral ®le with a
proprietary data structure.

5.4. CNC code generation

In most CAM software, the cutter location data generated from tool path plan-
ning is post-processed to produce controller-speci®c CNC code in G/M words.
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AutoPlan does not produce a `hard coded’ CNC program but generates a parametric
CNC code to enable a link between feature parameters, CL data and the G/M codes.
Parametric programming is widely used by expert process planners during manual
part programming to create generic CNC codes. The parametric programs o€ er
several bene®ts, such as ¯exibility, standardization of shop-speci®c practices and
improved productivity (Lynch 1995).
No standard CAM software, to our knowledge, is known to provide the facility
of generating feature-speci®c CNC code from a feature-based CAD model. Several
bene®ts will accrue if this methodology is implemented. Important among them are
the following.
. The feature-code binding will permit quick creation of error-free CNC code in
a feature-based ¯exible CAD environment.
. Standardizatio n of code that incorporates shop-speci®c (better) manufacturing
practices and expertise.
. Use of advanced facilities/cycles provided on the controller leads to better
utilization of the machine capabilities. Most CAM software creates code
using only the basic tool motion commands such as G01, G02, etc.
. Creation of compact and e cient code.
. Less expertise is needed on the part of the CNC programmer in using para-
metric programming.
With these objectives, AutoPlan was developed to demonstrate the strategy for
automatic generation of feature-speci®c parametric CNC code. This, we believe, is
the primary contribution of the present research work.

5.5. Test component

Consider the test component. shown in ®gure 4. The features to be
machined on this component. are step, rectangular pocket, slot and an
array of holes inside the pocket. This object was modelled using the FBM
and was then processed by AutoPlan to generate the CNC code. A part of
this CNC code is shown in ®gure 8. Some of the important features of this
CNC code are as follows.
(1) The generated CNC code automatically incorporates the Parametric
Programming strategy using (®gure 8 contains a macro used to machine a
 Intelligent feature-base d process planning system 4445
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Figure 8. Part of CNC code.

rectangular array of holes) variables, arithmetic and logic operations and

trigonometric functions de®ning the feature geometry. The same code can be
reused for de®ning and machining another feature geometry of the same
class just by varying the data stored in the variables, which get passed on
to the macro (e.g. the number of rows/columns, pitch, etc). In a similar
manner, the feature-speci®c data can be changed by the user during the
editing of the feature-based CAD model and this change will automatically
 4446 L. Patil and S. S. Pande

get re¯ected in the CNC code. It thus incorporates the ¯exible feature-spe-
ci®c parametric CNC programming strategy.
(2) Subroutines that build in the modularity in the CNC code are automatically
generated. They can be effectively used for repetitive tasks such as machin-
ing the external gross, or the internal face of a pocket in multiple passes by
increasing the depth of cut in every pass. Multiple calls to the same sub-
routine can be used, if necessary. Facilities such as coordinate axes rotation,
mirroring, ®xture offsets etc are also included and are useful if they are
provided directly on the controller.
(3) The modal nature in the operation of preparatory words (G01,
G02; . . . ; G81), standard ISO canned cycles and cutter radius compensation
(G40, G41, G42) is accounted for to avoid redundancy and verbosity in the
generated code.
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6. Conclusions
The IFPP (Intelligent Feature-based Process Planning) system provides an inte-
grated environment for the feature-based design synthesis and manufacture of pris-
matic parts. The FBM (Feature Based Modeller) provides a designer friendly
environment for the synthesis and validation of a feature-based solid part model.
The intelligent process planner (AutoPlan) provides an integration of the feature to
process knowledge in order to demonstrate a feature-speci®c parametric CNC pro-
gramming strategy.
IFPP was extensively tested for several prismatic parts from industries by mod-
elling, planning and actual machining on the CNC machining centre with a FANUC
controller. The integrated environment in IFPP was found to provide error-free,
compact and e cient CNC code to enable a quick turnaround from design to
manufacture in a rapid product development environment.

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