Associations in a unified feature modeling scheme
Features allow one to associate human knowledge and product geometry. The authors proposed, in earlier publications, a unified feature modeling scheme with the aim to maintain the integrity and consistency of a product model. Different application feature models within and across different product life-cycle stages are integrated, and especially, nongeometric relations (besides geometric ones) are handled. In this paper as an improvement to the previous work, two types of associations are introduced: sharing and dependency. In the context of conceptual and detail design stages, these associations are described and the implementation is discussed in detail.
unified feature modeling association mechanism information consistency product life cycle