Patent ID: 7245984
Filing Date: 2007-07-17
Classification: G05B,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A manufactured part created by a method of horizontally structured CAD/CAM manufacturing for large process models comprising: a blank for machining into said manufactured part; a coordinate system; a master process model in a first file comprising: a first group reference link generated for a first subset of said manufacturing features; an first in-process model created via virtual machining of the first subset of said manufacturing features, said first in-process model stored in a second file, the second file associated with the first file via the second group reference link; wherein the first in-process model exhibits an associative relationship with said master process model; a second group reference link generated for a second subset of said manufacturing features; a second in-process model created via virtual machining of the second subset of said manufacturing features, said second in-process model stored in a third file, the third file associated with the first file via the third group reference link; wherein the second in-process model exhibits an associative relationship with said master process model; and manufacturing instructions to create said manufactured part by machining at least one of said first and second subsets of said manufacturing features into said blank, wherein, if the first subset of said manufacturing features is altered or deleted, the second subset of said manufacturing features remains unchanged; an alternate master process model created from the first in-process model, the alternate process model being created based on at least one feature of the first subset of manufacturing features; a first subset of alternate manufacturing features virtually machined into the alternate master process model; a first alternate in-process model generated from results of the virtual machining, the first in-process model exhibiting an associative relationship with the alternate master process model; a second subset of alternate manufacturing features virtually machined into the alternate master process model; and a second alternate in-process model generated from results of virtual machining the second subset of the alternate manufacturing features, the second alternate in-process model exhibiting an associative relationship with the alternate master process model, wherein said associative relationship between the first subset of the manufacturing features and the coordinate system is a parent/child relationship, and wherein said associative relationship between the second in-process model and the master process model is the parent/child relationship such that changes to the first in-process model as a first child and changes to the second in-process model as a second child do not affect the master process model as a parent, and wherein changes to the master process model as the parent affect the first and second child, thereby establishing a horizontal tree structure.