Manufacturing knowledge is often related to the shape features of a design. By extracting shape features from the geometric representations of designs, programs such as the MOSAIC-PM system by Professor Wright's research group automatically selects machining tools. Or, you could embed automated component selection into the drawing as I presented in a paper at the ASME Design Theory and Methodology Conference on prototype selection using a spectral optimization algorithm by extracting the functional representations of shape features.
Transition: But learning and understanding what a design does requires more than just the design geometry.
| BEST Lab | Department of Mechanical Engineering | University of California at Berkeley