Automated Contextual Annotation of B-Rep Cad Mechanical Components Deriving Technology and Symmetry Information to Support Partial Retrieval

Abstract

Mechanical components are often related to technological meaning: it is a screw, a ball bearing, . . . Technological meaning relates to the notion of function which, in turn, refers to the environment of a component. Here, it is shown how a digital mock-up contextualizing a set of components is used to annotate its components with technological information. This information is derived from the interfaces between components. Interfaces together with the concept of state of a digital mock-up initiate annotations of components with functional information. Symmetries of components is a complementary information that can contribute to a query. Local rotational symmetry is analyzed and adapted to the context of mechanical components. Then, combining these two categories of information enables the generation of high level queries addressing a subset of a component boundary. Technological as well as symmetry informations are component annotations automatically derived from the digital mock-up analysis and from components analyzed separately.