Modelling integration of CAD and inspection planning of simple element features

Concurrent design and manufacturing is widely accepted as essential for obtaining an economically conceivable design solution for industrial production. Nevertheless the development of a viable computer‐aided inspection planning (CAIP) using CAD as input for effective NC‐measuring data preparation has not yet been successful. This paper introduces an approach to direct integration between CAD and CAIP by developing a feature‐based computer aided design/inspection planning (FB‐CAIP) system. The FB‐CAIP system contains a computer‐internal model of a product that contains sufficient information to guide the direct generation of NC code of the inspection activity. The developed small prototype system integrates knowledge‐based inspection planning with feature‐based CAD system for an automatic CNC measuring program generation of prismatic parts.