Development of a Methodology for Creating Families of Parts
by
Gregory M Marr
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty
of the
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
Degree of Master of Science
in
Mechanical Engineering
by
Gregory M. Marr

• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction
• Background
  • Computer Aided Drafting
  • Solid Modeling
  • Solid Modeling Methods
  • Parametric and Feature-Based Modeling
  • CADDS5 and Parametrics
  • Properties of a Master Part
  • Objective
  • Motivation
  • The Process for Developing the Methodology
  • Important Issues to be Addressed
• User Survey
  • The Survey Questions
  • Results of the Survey
• Building the Families of Parts
  • Selection Criteria
    • Size of the Family
    • Topological Equivalence
    • Amount of Use
    • Complexity of Model
  • The Selected Families
  • The First Family: Round Rack Handles
    • Description
    • Modeling Considerations
    • Modeling Strategies
      • Cylinders and Circular Sweeps
      • Sweep Along Lines and Arcs
      • Sweep Along Filleted Rectangle
    • Part Construction
  • The Second Family: MIL SPEC Connectors
    • Description
    • Modeling Considerations
      • Model Details
    • Modeling Strategies
    • Part Construction
  • First Draft of The Methodology
  • The Third Family: Extruded Structural Members
    • Description
    • Modeling Considerations
    • Modeling Strategies
      • The First Design
      • The Second Design
      • The Third Design
    • Part Construction
      • Tee Construction
      • Channel Construction
      • Angle Construction
      • Zee Construction
  • The Fourth Family: Terminal Strips
    • Description
    • Modeling Considerations
    • Modeling Strategies and Construction
      • The First Method
      • The Second Method
      • The Third Method
      • The Fourth Method
    • Comparison of the Four Methods
• User Testing
• Results
  • Amatom Round Handles
  • MIL-C-38999/24 Connectors
  • Structural Member Extrusions
  • Terminal Strips
  • Comparing CSG and B-rep Methods
  • Final Methodology
  • Using Families of Parts
  • Possible Search Systems
  • Creating Family of Parts Members
  • Searching for Parts
    • Text Based Search Engine
    • WWW Based Search Engine
    • Checking on Specific Parts
  • The Parts Server
  • Location of Parts on the System
• Conclusions
• Suggestions for Future Work
• References
• Manual: Using Families of Parts
• Manual: Creating Families of Parts
• Manual: Maintaining Families of Parts
• The Search Engines Code
  • Searching for Parts
  • Checking on a Specific Part
  • Searching for Parts Using a WWW Browser
  • Checking on a Specific Part Using a WWW Browser
• The Parts Server Code
• Supplementary Code

Last Modified: Wed Aug 28 14:41:29 EDT 1996