An effective subpart retrieval approach of 3D CAD models for manufacturing process reuse

•The coupled machining feature cluster (CMFC) is introduced to represent the 3D CAD model into structured MBD model incorporating more manufacturing semantics.•A multilevel feature descriptor capturing different levels of information for manufacturing process planning is designed.•The MFCG-based subpart matching algorithm is presented to calculate the similarity between matched subparts.•CMFC content code and part layer code for accelerating subpart retrieval are given to filter out unmatched subparts efficiently.

As a vast number of 3D CAD models associated with manufacturing processes are generated each year, retrieval of 3D CAD models for achieving manufacturing process reuse is becoming an effective strategy for engineers to generate the process plan with less time and lower cost. However, there has been little research on how to find the similar subparts for manufacturing process reuse. In this paper, a novel subpart retrieval approach of 3D CAD models for manufacturing process reuse is presented. First, coupled machining feature cluster (CMFC) is introduced to represent the 3D CAD model into structured MBD (model-based definition) model taking machining features as the carrier of manufacturing semantics. Then, part layer code and CMFC content code for accelerating subpart retrieval are given to filter out unmatched subparts efficiently. Moreover, a multilevel feature descriptor capturing different levels of information for manufacturing process planning is designed to establish the machining feature similarity assessment model. Finally, the machining feature coupled graph (MFCG) based subpart matching algorithm is presented to calculate the similarity between matched subparts. A prototype system has been developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.