Feature-based technology is the key factor towards meeting the increasingly high demands of improving and speeding up the product development process from concept to customer feedback, and is therefore expected to be able to provide for a better approach to integrate the complete product design process chain. This text is dedicated to exploring the progress towards an integrated solution for the product creation process based on feature technology. Hence, it encompasses significant phases of the product creation process, from conceptual design to recycling, including the following topics: life-phases modelling; knowledge based engineering; multiple-view geometric modelling; technological links among assemblies; manufacturing process cost estimation; manufacturing modelling; machining preparation; product deterioration prediction; and product recovery estimation. For each topic theoretic bases, tentative solutions and illustrative examples are detailed, demonstrating the successful application of feature technology to the modelling of innovative products and the efficient control of their design.The book is a selection of proceedings from the International Conference on Feature Modelling in Advanced Design-for-the-Life-Cycle Systems (FEATS 2001), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Valenciennes, France in June 2001.
