Graph centrality analysis of feature dependencies to unveil modeling intents

ABSTRACT

Modeling intents are what engineers wish the part to be (even under changes) modeled in order to reflect his original design considerations, dependencies and constraints. Such intents in the current Computer-aided Design (CAD) modeling practice are not systematically captured, and often represented in the form of implicit constraints embedded in features. In order to unveil modeling intents it is necessary to analyze the feature relations. Feature dependency graph for a part model is created by extracting historical modeling operations and the dependency information of each feature. It offers a more organized view toward the model construction. A posterior analysis of CAD models is proposed to unveil modeling intents by examining feature dependencies with different graph measures, including degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. This paper shows critical feature for the construction of the CAD model can be identified with the centrality analysis, which provides engineers a starting point to reexamine the modeling intents behind the model creation.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Modeling intents
• Feature dependency graph
• Network analysis
• Feature-based design

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Canada MITACS and NSERC and China Scholarship Council (CSC) for their financial support. All the research works were carried out at the University of Alberta.

ORCID

Zhengrong Cheng http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2707-4491

Yanan Xie http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6615-6468

Yongsheng Ma http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6155-0167