Michael J. Wozny - Böcker

This text explores the developments in geometric and product modelling, and their applications. In particular, it looks at the means by which product geometry emerges from the conceptual stages of design, and the use of geometric reasoning for applications downstream of design, including manufacture and assembly. Much existing design research is either totally geometry based or totally non-geometric, and the interface between the two areas is of great interest to industry, as well as being crucial for the successful development of integrated systems for design and manufacture. This interface is currently not well understood and the book attempts to make a contribution to its understanding. The following areas are amongst those addressed: computer-aided design and manufacture of mechanical products; computer integration of design and manufacturing; computational geometry; conceptual design and engineering tolerances; and assembly design and planning.

IFIP Working Group 5.2 has organized a series of workshops aimed at presenting and discussing current issues and future perspectives of geometric modelling in the CAD environment. This text comprises the proceedings of the seventh GEO workshop, which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Parma, Italy in October 2000. The workshop looked at paradigms for CAD, including the evolution of geometric-centric CAD systems, modeling of non-rigid materials, shape modeling, geometric modelling and virtual prototyping, and methods of interaction with geometric models. The 17 included papers provide an overview of the evolution of geometric centric modelling into shape modelling. Also included is an invited speaker paper, which discusses the foundation of the next generation of CAD systems, where shape and function enhance geometric descriptions.