Abstract
A scheme for automatic dimensioning of a part created by B-rep based modeling system is presented. Since size dimensions and location dimensions are required for defining part features in engineering drawings, part features are extracted first from a B-rep model for the automatic dimensioning.
Faces which constitute a feature are found in two steps: the first by the edge-initiated approach and the second by the boundary-initiated approach. The recognized features are stored in a graph whose nodes are feature faces and edges represent their connections.
Once all the features are recognized, a linked list of identification points, called a dimension link, is generated automatically for each direction of dimensioning the part. Then, size and location dimensions of the part features are directly created from the dimension link and placed on the most descriptive view.
